I don't have a problem with pots, but for some reason we have ants everywhere this year. Its crazy. In all my gardens, and in the lawn, huge ant hills. It must have something to do with the weather, I've never seen this before.

Have fire ants made it to the far north?

They started here in Mobile, rode in on banana boats. As a kid we called them p*** ants cause they created pus in the bites. Nowadays they inhabit flower pots after a heavy rain or lift a high mound in the garden. You do not want those guys to bite you.

We have fire ants here in Ontario.
They make it hard to pick weeds in a certain location in my backyard.
Vanessa

Honestly hippie, we do have reddish ants here that can sting softer parts (e.g. behind the knees, any softer skin) They are not true fire ants (Solenopsis invicta, literally "Never Conquered")

I ran into true fire ants in Florida while shore fishing at the Rodman Reservoir. Extremely aggressive little buggers, with a much worse sting than the red ants here.

They are basically a tropical species. It is unlikely they would survive a winter north of zone 7.

Be thankful they are not here.....

Also at my latitude there is an invasion of ants this year. My biggest concern is that the ants bring the aphids to the plants. I read that ants hate strong smells, like lavender, mint and coffee. To keep them away I will follow the suggestions of the article down below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Get rid of ants

Luuk ants also avoid garlic. A garlic tea sprayed on your roses will work nicely to keep them away.

My fire ants are the big problem here. Like Jim says, all you can do is get them to move elsewhere, you cannot conquer them. Aggressive as a ground hornet too. I've had to wash them out of pots of hosta several times after a period of rain. The mound goes up the petioles quite far, even for a plant as tall as Manhattan. I remember getting into some fire ants as a child and the bites became infected, looked like small pox on my legs, and was very hard to clear.

I read that ants "farm" the aphids to eat their sweet nectars. In a book titled ROSES LOVE GARLIC which is about companion plantings, they planted garlic with the roses. And of course the garlic tea works very well. The Hanging Hosta of Hampshire use such as a spray for their hosta.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hanging Hosta of Hampshire video

We have the nasty fire ants here, but they are not the problem right now. We've been invaded by some kind of small black ant. They are everywhere, including my hosta pots. They don't seem to sting, but really look like ants. I swabbed one with alcohol and looked at it under a magnifying glass and they do look like ants.

The only thing wrong with the coffee thing is that I don't drink that much coffee and I can't see any mounds, just ants.

bk

Yep, it's the small black ants here, too, that are making my hostas their homes, not the red ones. They are very tiny and seem to be very industrious! I really don't have time for an ant invasion, we are revamping an entire area in the back and all of my potted hostas have to be moved to other locations for a couple of weeks. I'm gonna be tucking them everywhere to take advantage of any shade at all found. Don't have time to mess with ants, too! Grrrr...

Wow, I thought I was the only one. I noticed that this year too, that we've had an explosion of ant hills everywhere. In the lawn, around the stepping stones, in the vegetable beds, camped out in an ornamental oregano. I hadn't started worrying about it yet, maybe I should. [g]