I have wondered the same and most urgently since I came across an "Ameisen Schutzgebiet" in the Luneburger Heide in Germany, a protected area for ants! I asked a local why ants need protection and she couldn't think of a reason either. I am sure they will survive humans no matter what we do. Ants are said to dislike wet so I try to water a dry stone wall they are destroying in my garden but I don't notice any results.

They aerate the soil. They patrol the ground and branches, cleaning up as they go. I don't mind them among the plants, but they excavate under pavement and garden stones, causing things to tilt or topple over.

They are a force of entropy; and they are needed like everything else Nature provides.

Because reincarnated city and burb dwellers who ignored the beauty of gardens need a place to start over?

Obviously there are some alien ant species (such as fire-ants) that are a big nuisance to us humans, and who likes any ant in the house?

But, in the main, ants are a gardeners friend. They aerate the soil, take nutrients underground, help keep things clean, and preform a host of other positive tasks.

Are their any downsides? Sure. But over-all these little critters get a bad rap. There is a lot that's good about ants.

Bill (in his role as a defender of the down-trodden)

Bill, remind me to send you some of my ants.

Jeri

We have ants excavating under the driveway we just poured last year. I am not for poisoning ants in the lawn or garden unless they drive me out, but can they be gotten rid of under the drive and sidewalks?

On a couple of occasions, I have resorted to ant granules.
You can see, I was desperate.

Jeri

Well, I have used ant granules to no effect whatsoever, unfortunately. Must be the wrong kind of ants. :o(

Maybe you have stronger ants?

I think we should all send our ants to Bill. :-)

JEri

The Ant

The ant has made herself illustrious
By constant industry industrious.
So what? Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid?

Ogden Nash

"For over 600 years naturalists knew that ant hills gave off an acidic vapor. In 1671, the English naturalist John Ray describe the isolation of the active ingredient. To do this he collected and distilled a large numbers of dead ants, and the acid he discovered later became known as formic acid from the Latin word for ant, formica. Its proper IUPAC name is now methanoic acid."

Here is a link that might be useful: Ant powered cars

Duchesse,
You earned your title with that contribution. The link was quite interesting! I love the forum.
Melissa

Ants are among the most ubiquitous of all insects, and therefore the most successful. It is probably impossible to garden somewhere and not have ants present.

Yes, mostly they're scavengers and their presence is a real benefit to us.

I don't like ants in the house, but otherwise I like them outdoors, except fire ants. I pour boiling water on them, and then feel bad all day as I watch the survivors stack the dead bodies in one pile and the poached eggs in another. Last summer one group took up residence under Caldwell Pink. Couldn't do the boiling water thing. I poked at them with a stick now and then, while I thought on a way to get rid them. But as luck would have it, they moved out over the winter (or died, I guess). We have so many kinds of ants down here, so many sizes and colors, so interesting. There's one kind that makes continuous trails: it looks like an LA freeway, bumper to bumper ants going each way, all day, all night. The same path is there year after year. I suppose they must stop when it's very cold. But I have no idea what they're doing. How can the same path be useful for so long?