I finally broke down and sprinkled some Amdro around where the highest concentrations of ants were. We have been infested with them this year, and they have killed a number of my potted roses, including 4 custom grafted ones. Whenever the pot ghetto irrigation kicked on they would march by the armies to get into the pots. They literally would march along the blue line tubing and down the drip tubes into the pots. I think because of the drought conditions we have been having, they are desperate for water, and probably food. I hated to put the Amdro around, because these were not biting ants. I had to put a stop to my roses being destroyed. They have also killed some areas of lawn near where the highest concentrations of marching ants were. I still don't know if my Belmont Yellow is going to recover, but I planted it anyway. The Amdro has knocked the numbers back, but hasn't totally eliminated them yet, but I understand it can take a couple of weeks. It is supposed to sterilize the queen. Usually the lizards keep the populations down, but I think the numbers of ants are so large that they can't keep up. Sandy

The wild turkeys aren't helping any. I took a couple of winged insects to test station, they'll have entomologist look at them but guy said they looked like some sort of wasp, not ant, b/c of the pointed abdomen, even though we couldn't see a stinger. I was going to search on digger wasps but came home to phone message and family emergency/crisis so haven't been able to. These may actually be beneficials, though a pest b/c of the numbers, but I still have to deal with the tiny ants (definitely ants) eating my raspberry leaves. All he could suggest was boric acid - but can't apply that to leaves, should I just bait the raised beds the berries are in? Pouring here this afternoon - maybe they'll drown ;-)

I don't know if it will work with witchety grubs it did for me with lawn grubs though time consuming. I laid out some old pieces of cloth - old curtains in fact and moistened it. Found they would rise to feed on the grass and roots overnight and still being in dark under the cloth, be on the ground surface early morning. Pull back the cloth and they will soon be picked up by the birds, or the sun will get them, or you can do it yourself. Old hessian bags, anthing to hand, just try a test see if it helps.

I am also having this issue. Last year I lost a bunch of brassica plants when I (too late, after a windy spell knocked over a bunch of plants that had been looking great) eventually figured out they were attacked by cabbage root maggots. (When I excavated the plants/soil around where it had been planted, I found small white maggots.) For the rest of the season I protected plants with skirts (flat on the soil, with a slit/star cut for the stem) made from weed cloth. This seemed to work well, although from what I learned, earlier spring is when they are most an issue, so maybe the worst of it had already passed. So this year, I was prepared, and every brassica seedling I planted was given a skirt. Well, after they seemed to be doing well, all of a sudden after another windy day, I noticed several plants looking pretty wilted. After closely inspecting all of my plants, I found very small (what I would call sugar) ants around several of the plants. I too, have understood that ants don't usually attack plants, but rather 'farm' other things. I dug up one plant, and found two very small wire worms (which I am familiar with, but because I am always keeping an eye out for them in the garden (and feeding them to my chickens), they do not usually do significant damage. I also found one very small white larvae of something. I'm not going to rule out that the ants, but around some of the plants, I also noticed some very tiny gray bugs. And also small winged bugs, similar to aphid flies I've seen on the leaves of brassicas. I need to do more research, but the two things I'm going to investigate further are springtails and root aphids. (I think pill bugs could also be an issue, as I think they like the slightly more damp environment that the weed cloth skirts create, especially as we are actually having a wet spring here in WA. But they aren't my #1 suspect right now given the ant activity.) I applied a thick circle of diatomaceous earth around each plant (I think that should work against both springtails and root aphids, although only if they come up to the surface), and also sprinkled some cinnamon to deter the ants. I figure even if the ants aren't actually the primary issue, I don't want them encouraging any pests that are feeding on the roots. The long and short of it is that I am suspecting in my efforts to deter one pest from feeding on my brassica roots, I've created conditions that encouraged some others. (Ugh. I swear, I do enjoy gardening...right?!) Hoping this might be helpful for others...