Diatomaceous earth is the best organic way to reduce the ant population in your garden. Since I have a large acreage I don't mind if they build their nests away from my garden but won't tolerate them near my house and garden. I sprinkle diatomaceous earth on every ant hill I see and there is no more activity within a couple of days. Of course more ants move in and set up more hills so it's necessary to be constantly vigilant. Use food grade diatomaceous earth and don't breath in the dust. If I didn't use DE I'd be over-run with ants. Aphids are easy to deal with by using a spray of water or Safers Soap spray. It's not only stressed plants that aphids will be found on, some years they are on some of my roses but leave the other nearby roses alone for an unknown reason.

Unless you know something the world has not been told about Aspartame, then it should be organic. Or it could be a material like urea which chemically mimics natural urea but is derived from natural gas. Aspartame is a sweet tasting protein and is digested like one. There could be any of a number of reasons why ants might die after taking to their colonies. Here are some: 1. Aspartame is directly poisonous to the ants 2. Aspartame promotes a microbe that directly causes a disease in ants. 3. Aspartame attracts another critter that eats the ants. 4. Aspartame "infects" or otherwise degrades the stored food supply (that the ants have in their colony) with something that is distasteful or deadly to the ants. 5. Aspartame attracts a disease microbe which infects the ants and kills them. 6. Aspartame attracts a critter which eats the ants' food supply. All these things happen in the soil. Calling it a neurotoxin is probably premature. The other ideas presented are plausible, if, in fact, ants do die after carrying the material away.

Jessaka, Good point that we need to be thankful for the rain we're receiving! OK, y'all, I'm not as much in the mood to dance today. Our ground is still very, very wet and I want to get some planting done after the Sunday-Monday cold spell passes. It rained lightly here last night, but I haven't looked at the rain gauge yet. I don't expect that we got much rain....but we really needed it at PRECISELY that point because we had 6 or 7 fire departments out fighting 2 wildfires at the time the rain started. Talk about rain falling just when it was needed! I tilled three raised beds yesterday, working last year's decomposed mulch (now pretty much just compost with a few chunks of bark) into the soil. It was still pretty damp, but wasn't wet until you got 6 to 8 inches below the soil surface. I was racing the rainclouds....could see them coming and knew if I didn't till those beds, I wouldn't be able to plant in them on Monday. Now, they may be wet from last night's rain, but they're "ready to go" as soon as they dry out a little. There's more rain in our forecast for today and for later in the week. After watching what has been going on with the flooding, especially in Missouri, I am grateful that we received only heavy rains here and no flooding. Dawn

Then we had an outside company come and spray 3 times in three months and they won't go away. ==>>> the ants .. or the company ... did they not guarantee their work??? did they happen to ID them??? .. and if not.. it makes one wonder .... you might want to invest in hiring another company ... who will guarantee their work ... and solve your problem ... in every project.. there does come a time.. when checkbook resolution is the only option.. if for no other reason.. peace of mind ... and frankly.. when i found them crawling ON ME ... it would be the time to do such ... good luck ken ps: i use the type at the link when they invade in spring [various versions per manufacturer] ... its the type rhiz is talking about ... over a couple days... i watch their paths ... and place them in places i know they travel.. and usually within a week.. they are gone.. until the next horde moves in [i figure.. a new nest???] .. lol .. and as noted.. the scouts leave a trail ... for others to follow ... so your repeated.. frequent washing.. kinda obscures the fact that the scout has to report back and his scent followed back by the workers.. who will bring the goo back to the hive .... [ i place some under the stove.. near the sink.. and near the toaster ... all food sources IMHO] Here is a link that might be useful: link