Ants - in every pot....

[pepperrabbit]

Every single one of my tubs (except the hanging basket - though I expect an assault by the little beggars soon) has ants, black ants, red ants, they're everywhere
Can I get rid of them? Move them on somehow? Do I actually need to do anything? It could just be my gardening that's blighting the pots!
We have ant powder for if they come indoors, but with 3 smallish children and a cat it seems a little drastic to sprinkle it over the garden.
I have some beautiful veronicas out the front which should be gorgeous this time of year yet they're muted at best and I suspect it's because of the sheer volume of ants.
When we took over the house the garden was completely overgrown to a good 4ft and we had anthills the size of small mountain ranges, 8 years on I thought it was more under control but this year is particularly bad.
Any suggestions?

We also have this problem, and I would love to know the answer. Although our ants are only boring black in colour!

"I would love to know the answer"

It's still Nippon Liquid

Thank you.
Are you a one man Nippon campaign?
Didn't think to search in Good Housekeeping - it not being somewhere I visit much . We have an excellent hardware store here, I'll go and get some tomorrow. I assume i can put the gel/coin bait in each pot and they'll just do the rest.

One of the things I used to do in Australia (but haven't needed to do here) is get a big plastic tub, fill it with water, and soak the pot plants in it. Make sure the water goes to the very top of the soil, but not over it if possible or some of it will wash away. Leave it for a good half hour. Do this on a weekly basis and the ants won't want to reside there!

Ant hills that are not near plants can have boiling water poured over them. (Works on weeds on a paved area, too!)

Also you can spinkle corn meal around - which is not poisonous to children or animals, the ants eat it, then when they drink some water the corn meal swells up and kills them. Except that won't work if you get rain.