There are many ways to get rid of fire ants. You can use a mixture of sugar and borax. Pour the mixture around the ant hills, and the ants will carry it inside the colony, killing it off. Another solution is the sugar substitute, Equal or Nutri-Sweet. These have been known to be poisonous to ants. Just pour it around the hill and you will see little any bodies laying around in a couple days. Like the others have said, if it's garden ants let them be - unless it's a huge infestation. Here is a link that might be useful: Ants In The Vegetable Garden

There's a lot of information out there on what will and will not work on psyllids, and Neem is one that's been mentioned time and time again, however there are conflicting reports on its effectiveness. I've seen several instances where people have said it's basically ineffective, and what little it does requires it to be sprayed at too-frequent intervals, and others where people seem to think it's doing something ("Sprays containing an extract of neem oil [Greenlight Neem Concentrate] help control a variety of garden pests and may also work on tomato psyllid," according to the Ventura County Master Gardeners). I also came across an article about neem granules, but I've never seen them sold before, and they supposedly need to be put into the planting hole, so that's out at this point. As far as the scaley nymphs go, they don't come off all that easily. They're not like aphids or whiteflies in that regard. And the eggs are even harder to get off. I've rubbed them, pinched at them, sprayed them... they do not come off. I guess I could take a magnifying glass and an expensive pair of slant-tipped tweezers to squish them all, but that would take me years to get them all. Different methods of control work with varying degrees of success, but after doing battle with these guys last year and having them take out my entire tomato crop, I want to use whatever's going to make them die the fastest, provided it doesn't also make my household pets die. I'm not overthinking anything, really. I'm going on what I've read from various sources, and that's all I can do, since it seems that there are no experts on tomato psyllids roaming around doling out advice on what's guaranteed to kill them all off. Even the commercial growers haven't figured out the best way to stop their crop loss with all of the crazy insecticides they have access to, last I read, and I'd imagine if anyone was going to try everything under the sun and come up with a solution, it'd be those with money to lose, so I'm doing the best I can with what I have. Oh and Ray, as far as the Sevin goes, I've come across several recommendations against it. It kills off everything, including any bugs that could be beneficial in eating the psyllids. And the only thing I've read about being proactive against them is the one weird article I came across talking about the neem granules that seemed more like an advertisement than anything scientific. If they want to eat your plants, it doesn't sound like there's must to deter them, but if you find something, let me know.

That's the thing... the only damage is on the roses. I got the lilies from a friends garden and she says that she has the same beetle and calls them a japanese beetle. (I thought they were brown and green though). No damage to the lilies in her garden either but the beetles seem to move into the lilies and just sit there on the stem at the base of a leaf.

Here are 2 pictures of the problem spots. What is this and what can i do about it. it grows twice as fast (if not more) then the surrounding grass, and it seems to get bigger every year. (there are just 2 small spots, i have a pretty big area of this in one corner)