I am having problems with ants in my raised beds and in my patio (where I have several container plants/veg). At first, i just left them alone as they didnt seem to harm my plants. Then I saw them eating through the stems of my choi sim, and also a cauliflower seedling (they like brassicas??). At the same time, i noticed they were starting to farm aphids on my camomile, my sunflowers, and some of my herbs. And I got mad - very mad! I tried using cinnamon, using chilli powder, using bicarbonate of soda (all solutions I googled)... no use. Not even a dent in the population. Next, I bought DE and spread them all along their paths. No difference. In the end, I harvested all the choi sim and poured jugs of boiling water on them and where they congregated (be very careful of hurting the surrounding veg though!). I am happy to say that got rid of most of them :) I do this whenever they start damaging my veg too badly now. Cheap, easy and organic!I also have a couple of ant baits around the patio. This also works well for me. Its not possible to get rid of them completely and I can tolerate their presence fine if they dont eat and damage my plants too much. As Dave said, most of the time, ants dont really do much harm. I hope yours are not like mine!

imabirdnut, There is lots of info in the FAQ section of this forum for raising caterpillars. I purchased several containers of animal crackers from Sams, they are about 1-1/2 gallon in size, for the container, not the animal crackers! After emptying out the container, I cut holes almost the size of each side, leaving about and inch or so all around to attach screen (the cats need ventilation) and to have some sturdiness for the cage. I try to use a single length of screen, but if I don't have enough, I use pieces to cover the holes. I attach the screen with silicone (bathtub caulk) so that it is waterproof when I need to disinfect the cage after the butterflies have emerged. (It is important to disinfect your cages after the butterflies have emerged-especially the monarchs, they are susceptible to viruses and OE spore.) I raise as many as 20 cats in one container, then disinfect when all have left, or at least those that attached themselves to the cage walls. BSTs usually attach themselves to sticks that I place in the cage in pieces of floral styrofoam that will fit inside the opening. I purchased some miniature vases from WalMart, about 3" in height, and use these for supplying food to my cats. The water in the vase helps keep the food fresh and keeps the cats off the floor of the cage and out of their waste. Hope this helps and remember, you can always come back to the forum and ask any question. The people here are great about sharing information and experiences. Mechelle Mechelle

The thing here is, aphids are inevitable and I really haven't found anything that controls them other than beneficial insects, keeping the ant farmers under control, or just waiting for the weather to kill them (late summer for me). The worst infestations I have are always those the ants are farming, and it's just too many aphids for anything to make a serious dent. Once the ant colony doing the farming is gone, aphid numbers go down to a level which the beneficial insects can control. I seriously can't describe in words the amount of aphids ants can pile onto a plant, and you can do whatever you like to get rid of those aphids, but the ants will go find some more to replace them with. Like I said, the hunter gatherer ants get to stay, but any agricultural ants I find will be annihilated ;) Nomads that find their way into my house also get the sword. Strict code of conduct for ants around here.

Whether ants would be a problem depends on which of the some 10,000 species of ant you have, but generally ants are not a problem in the garden. If you are in the southern tier of states fire ants may be a problem. What do you mean by mites? There are many species of mites, few of which pose much of a problem to the garden. kimmq is kimmsr