ants on your plants sometimes bring aphids
they ranch them like cattle
Oh fuck ME, you can say that again!
Dude, ants brought root aphids 20'-30' up off the ground last year, right into my perlite hempy tubs. Fucked them UP. Ants have infested one patch of sweet corn with aphids.
I don't know how best to control ants outside of creating barriers, but even then they can tunnel right under them, but stuff like
diatomaceous earth spread at the base of the plants can be quite helpful. For the aphids I've begun experimenting with a tomato leaf spray, made from the fresh leaves of tomatoes and steeped for a day or two, seems to be working against spider mites and only yesterday did I spray the aphids in the corn, so I'll have to see if that did anything to help.
Ants are farming... errr. ranching aphids on every bull thistle we have on the property. It's pretty creepy when you catch them taking groups of aphids to new plants. Several ants, each with their own aphid, will gather on the underside of a leaf. They'll cluster together, and then the ants' abdomens begin to pulse, all together, rhythmically, as though they're dancing or masturbating. Creepy.
Tanglefoot at the base of the plant will prevent them from taking anything up the stalk. But the roots need to be watched carefully, too, and if they seem to be doing something in the root zone I would treat immediately, based on my experiences last year.
