HELP! I am desperate to find a way to get rid of the ants in my flower beds. They are small black/dk brown ants that prefer greasy foods over sweets. (Discovered when my daughter dropped a french fry in the kitchen and didn't pick it up.) They are in my flower beds. I have found them in two potted plants already this year (one of them a hibiscus). They were in my mailbox without dirt at one time after it had rained for a while. Luckily, they do not bite but they are walking around my house all the time and I'm concerned they will be a bigger problem when I bring my tropical plants back in the house in the fall. Does anyone know if these methods safe for houseplants and herbs?

I saw ants on my sunflower leaves, too; but when I looked closely, I thought they were eating or attending to an aphid type insect. Didn't notice much actual leaf damage, as we're having such dry conditions and heat here that I assumed the occasional yellow and wilt was due to that. I know aphids will suck leaf stems ,tho. I just thought the ants were not the problem.

I hope it's alright if I jump in here about those pesky little ants that get in the house. I remember those little black 'sugar ants' from when I was a kid. My grandmother would set the legs of the kitchen table in a can of water to keep them out of the sugar bowl. But for about the last 15 years, I've been PLAGUED with tan ants that are about the same size which are also called 'sugar ants' and sometimes called 'pharaoh ants.' Occasionally I'd find their nests in the house; perhaps in a lamp base or in small boxes, nooks and crannies or appliances that hadn't been used for awhile. According to the link below sugar ants go for the boric acid bait. I concur as I've used such baits and several others and it eliminates them for awhile, but they always came back. Then a couple of years ago, after reading on here about how orange oil was used against fire ants, I started spraying the kitchen and bathroom counter tops, window sills and around electric outlets with an orange oil solution that was prepared from the concentrate purchased at a garden store. The premixed kind you buy in the grocery stores is probably too weak. Voila! I haven't seen an ant in the house since! Now I just use orange oil as a kitchen counter spray every few days. I can't believe it was SO EASY after using so many baits, professional and home-made, for years! What a relief not to have those little ants all over every crumb in the kitchen or coming for water in the bathrooms. Here is a link that might be useful: Getting rid of sugar ants

I would not clean the counters with vinegar prior to placing the Terro trays. You want to encourage ants to forage onto your counters, not discourage. And a word of warning.....if and when the ants visit the Terro tray, don't touch or move it. Even if they swarm the area in an scary frenzy to get to the bait, just leave it alone. Add another tray if they empty the first one too rapidly. In my experience, Terro worked overnight. After an unnerving swarming of the tray in the bathroom and in the floor of the pantry, I never saw another ant in my home. That event was ten years ago.