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?

Ugh! We sometimes get a bloom of these after torrential rains. We live very near a creek and they looooove moving water. When they come, the swarms are so thick it's hard not to swallow them. And while I'm not allergic, I am very sensitive to them. They have bitten me too in some very impolite-to-scratch regions. (Though their favorite spot seems to be where my pants hit my waist.) I've found that taking a Zyrtec after a few bites greatly diminishes the discomfort that follows... that and I have a prescription topical anti-itch medicine (Triamcinolone) to calm my skin the heck down. It's times like these to be grateful that unlike cattle, you can go inside and get away from the dang things! I feel your pain...

Karin, I looked at your metal tray. i think you could find something more cost effective that would work better for your plan. I think that thin metal will have a short life span, and needs drainage holes or things will drown. One suggestion is a company called Anderson that makes tree band pots for grafting,etc. They make a square tray 5 inches deep with good bottom drainage. It is injection molded plastic that should last for several seasons or more depending on the UV exposure. I have built a table with treated lumber and plywood and drapped in a rubber liner. I added a edge board around the border to make a very large 48"x32 foot tray. This entire surface could be filled with soil. i pitched it in one direction so the excess water will run off. I have been growing in a greenhouse for about 14 years now. Those ants and aphids still give me problems during certain seasons. They seem to find ways around impediments. Some growers shut their house up tight in the middle of the summer for a few days and cook everthing so you can start fresh. During the spring when lady bugs are going strong, as well as aphids, I go around collecting there eggs layed on leaves outside the greenhouse, and bring them to the greenhouse crops to hatch. Once these hatch they will do a lot of damage to aphid populations. I have had some success with release of ladybugs, but they are generally not happy staying in a greenhouse and fly away soon. They will surpress aphids and if aphids are in high numbers lay there eggs in infested areas, before they start their migration. Unfortunatly with beneficials you are not able to soap if you expect them to do their job, so it is a difficult thing to figure out if you should stick with soaps sprays, or hope the beneficials take off. It will work well certain times of the year before the season gets too warm. I have also had natural populations of parasitic wasps build up, so keep an eye open to that as well. They can be purchased, but because they have to be overnighted shiped, they are too expensive. If you see leaves with mummified aphids remove it from your crop but keep it in the greenhouse. this will allow the wasps to hatch out and seek out new aphids. Good Luck

xedos: "Samsung has washers with Silver Care that introduces silver ions into the wash/ clothes to kill bacteria and odors." Not any more, more's the pity. Once upon a time, I was the world's biggest booster of Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports. I have soured on them in recent years because, more and more, they attempt to make spectacular splashy stories that will make the evening news (for those of us of a certain age who still watch the evening news; the younger generation has abandoned it). Whether or not the stories have any real validity. One such story was about the detrimental effects of silver ions on the operation of the bacteria in sewage treatment plants and silver's (dark hint, dark hint) "unknown health effects" on human beings. The target of the reports was Samsung's SilverCare, which Samsung, to avoid the very, very strong backlash that the Consumer Reports articles created, renamed ActiveFresh, then dropped altogether. Bloggers were posting articles with headlines like, "Is my washer trying to kill me?" and the like. One cannot blame Samsung for dropping the feature: the Consumer Reports articles were disastrous to sales. Never mind that the total silver per washload from the Samsung innovation was about the same as the amount of silver that you would get in the wash water if you left a pre-1975 quarter in the pocket of a pair of pants that you were washing. Never mind that you will get more silver in your system -- directly into your digestive system, no less -- by eating off of sterling flatware than ever you would get into your system by washing your clothes in a Samsung washing machine. Never mind that when you wash the sterling flatware, whether in a dishwasher or by hand, more silver ions will end up in the sewage treatment plant than would gut there from a dozen washloads run through a Samsung washing machine. Silverware -- knives, forks, and spoons -- has been in widespread use for centuries, and, so far as I know, no one yet has proposed banning it for its adverse health effects. But did Consumer Reports address those historical facts? The subscription rates went up; that's all that mattered. Consumer Reports had its triumph; subscriptions went up; the world gained one more false Urban Legend. Consumer Reports "won" the round.