Ants are doubly damaging where aphids are concerned. Ant farmers not only cary aphids and put them on plants, they also drive away the predators to protect them. Usually the ants are coming from a nest that is not right under the plant. I've found that spraying just around the base of the plant with Neem oil interrupts their trails. They don't seem to like to cross Neem although it doesn't kill them.

Not sure if you had a previous thread where you mentioned these worms, but it would be good to see some pics. Without knowing for sure about your worms and ants, I'll assume you might be talking about earth worms and fire ants. However, your comment about how the roots are gone, may refer to other kinds of bugs and worms. Fire ants (big red ants) will eat earth worms and grubs if they get a chance to. This usually happens if the ant hill is nearby and some luckless worm moves near. Since you don't yet know what is eating your garden, you may want to hold off on the DE. That is usually suggested for slugs and snails, since like you said, people would want worms around. As for the growth of a plant, there are many unknown and unseen bugs and microbes that will interact with your plants. Unless you actually see damage or loss of the leaves or stalks or harvest, having these bugs nearby is not necessarily a cause for alarm. Generally, you will need to identify the kind of damage they are doing (which may come from how the plant is disappearing or how it looks after being infected) and what they are, then you can have an idea on how to treat them.

Quote: fairy toadmother [ view Sunflower : Little Doritt F1 Hybrid , you will need to scroll down on the page. it kindof reminds me of the plant in little shop of horrors. perhaps that will be my pet name for it. ] ROFL!! That cracked me up, because that's EXACTLY what I thought when I took a pic. of one of my sunflowers, before the flower head had completely opened. The thought that popped into my head was "FEED ME!" LOLOL. This is it. Here is another shot. I had to aim the camera UP because the flowers were well above my head. The seed packet simply said "Giant Annual Sunflower". And they were giants...that packet didn't lie. I ripped them all out several days ago..they're on the compost heap now. And I looked at the sunflower in your link - it is rather creepy looking and you've chosen an appropriate "pet" name for the thing. LOL. Btw, I noticed that loads of bees were attracted to my sunflowers, too. But my bees were the little honey bees. The fat bumbles didn't seem to care for them...they prefer the flowers on my basil over anything else in my garden. *shrug* Renee

Bird baths help birds stop pecking tomatoes just for water, but even with a water source handy, mocking birds actually eat my tomatoes until sometimes I'm left with just an empty tomato skin hanging on the vine with all the insides eaten out. Here's my solution for birds pecking tomatoes: I use a homemade rabbit trap to trap the tomato eating birds and release them elsewhere. The trap is better than shooting birds because you only trap the birds that actually peck your tomatoes and don't remove innocent birds. My trap is a typical homemade, wire cage rabbit trap with a sliding door on one end connected to a trip stick in the center of the trap. When the rabbit enters the trap, he hits the stick and releases the door and traps himself. To catch birds instead of rabbits, I tie a piece of red tomato to the lower end of the trip stick. When the bird comes in and pulls on the tomato piece to eat it, he trips the stick and you have a trapped bird which you can release elsewhere. Trapping birds works best early in the growing season when your very first tomatoes begin turning red. Basically, if the only red tomato in your garden is the one inside the trap, then the birds will greedily go for it. I immediately caught four mockingbirds the first time I used my rabbit trap technique and released them several miles away. After that, I only had maybe three or four tomatoes pecked the entire summer (verses about a three ruined tomatoes per day the year before). The trap also works for rabbits. A half ear of corn is good bait, but don't lay the bait on the floor of the trap or you'll catch lots of ants. Hang (suspend) the bait from the roof of the trap to keep ants off it. You might even discover that neighborhood cats love corn also. Thanks all, CharlieCom