a cheap thang you can try is watering you plants with a little dish liquid and water. soak the pots, you need it to coat the ants. do it weekly or by weekly. til ants are gone. i have had some good success. doing this with ants. also it can be sprayed on plants with aphids. hope it helps.

Thanks TravisE. I've heard about the dish soap method as an semi organic solution instead of pesticide for plants. Will the soap truely not hurt the plants? Even the dedicates like my herbs?

Ants can't swim. You could try having a moat around them - a tray filled with water and the pots on rocks to hold them above the water.

it hasnt hurt any of my plants and ive ben using this method for years now. every thing from lettuce to giant pumpkins to flowers.
hope it helps

haha LG, that sounds pretty awesome, lol. Might not work for some of my bigger guyst hen they could just crawl using my drip system.

I might try that soap method. Do Ants damage the plants? I assume these are harvester ants or something similar. I noticed awhile back they seemed to be very heavily in all my flowers. Are they actually hurting anything?

Also are Chives okay to eat 7 days after applying in the soil around it? Its not actually Seven, but some similar brand.

If you use the moat method, you can prevent the ants from traversing the drip system using tanglefoot. It is a sticky gooey product for trees. It works as long as there is no alternate route (like a tall blade of grass or other stem touching a branch on the tree or plant). You could even use it on the pots themselves, but I think the moat would be easier. I see a lot of ants in my garden, but seldom do they do any harm. I am in central CA, so you may have different ant species. The biggest problem I have is that any plant with ants on it is probably infested with aphids.

I do not think that ants are harmful in garden, Unless, as claimed, they are farming aphids. However, I myself find them just annoying.

Are the ants eating the herbs etc or just the tomatoes and are they only nibbling on the ripe ones? Seems like they might be attracted to the juices of a ripe tomato perhaps but wouldn't think they would care for the hard green ones.

The soap and water is a real go to for most every pest. I would only caution you use a milder soap (like Ivory) and don't put too much of it per the amount of water. Do it in the evening or on an overcast day, because I have occasionally seen the leaves "burn" in the sun from this. Likely because the soap, unlike water, clings to the plant. I use only 2 tablespoons of the liquid soap to a spray bottle (like an empty windex bottle if you don't have one that attaches to your garden hose) of water. I got rid of a lot of beetles on the cuc's and zucchini last year with this method and for years have used it on the japanese beetles that attack the Virginia creeper. You have to actually spray the citters though, it's not just a treatment, must hit the bug itself.
Another thing I have heard of is using a mixture of baking soda and sugar in a small bowl. The ants eat and take it to the queen. It's, again, safe for your plants, you and the edible

Here is a link that might be useful: baking soda and sugar water

This post was edited by christripp on Mon, Jun 10, 13 at 4:18

Syntria....if not actually Sevin, then what EXACTLY? It will have information on the label about its use on edibles, including days from application to harvest.

I read on the label 7 days after application on tomatoes and similar plants, but it didn't list herbs at all. Its Ortho Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers.

@Christipp

I've only seen a large brown and black (tri color sorta body) ant nibbling on my Stripped Tomatoes when they were orange (which I'm still trying to figure out if that means ripe because they haven't turned red). I misted them with the Ortho about 5-6 days ago and new tomatoes are now being hallowed out.

I also now have something eating the leaves of my Cantaloupe. I got up early to see if i could catch what it was and these were the two culprits.

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I'm still a real novice to real gardening and I'm open to all suggestions and to learn stuff. I really do appreciate the patience and feedback.

Since I already misted most of my plants with the Ortho, I want to wait a few days before trying anything else so I don't over do anything.

The ant population in the herbs seems gone, and I don't see them as heavily on my Lemon tree as before but there's still a few here and there but they might be chilling out in the soil.

As for what's eatting my Tomatoes, I haven't been able to get a picture of the ant I saw munching on them but I got a picture of a few of these guys hanging out. I'm not sure what they are or if they could be the ones munching. Google Image Search failed me.

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I was just reading about the latest insect invasion in Texas. Actually called Crazy Ants. http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/17/us/crazy-ants

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/17/us/crazy-ants

Syntria.....Knowing your location is always a help....I try to harvest 'maters just before perfectly "ripe" .....leaving them on the vine invites insect damage

Eric......Texas has had crazy ants for 10 years

Here is a link that might be useful: Kill Crazy Ants

Sintria, GREAT photo's! I can see that (slug type) critter would be a muncher for sure. I wish I was able to identify bugs better, I will often to google image searches when I see strange guys in the garden. Problem with killing them outright without knowing what they are is, many will do some limited damage as youths, but transform into the benificial garden helpers as adults. So, I really hesitate to do anything about bugs eating SOME plants unless they are going to wipe everything out, I hate boarers though and earwigs drive me insane:( Often too, the more "bad" bugs you get, the more preditors you attract. If there's little or no food source for the preds, like wasps etc, they just won't come to the garden and take a good chomp out the few that we do get (but the few that could eat the whole garden up)
I "attempt" to work with nature when ever possible, and when it's starts to get me angry, I pull out my water gun and shoot me some bugs with soap and water, man that can feel GOOD (sort of ashamed to admit it:)
I think you folks in the warmer climates have a lot more to deal with pest wise, then those of us in the colder climates with the harsher winters. I'm in Ottawa Canada.
For the most part, I have made peace with bugs, so long as they only take a leaf or two. I had chunks taken out of my tomato's last year too and THAT I was cranky about, left with only half of each tomato for me! Now, squirrels are a different story, they are digging all over the place and not even looking to EAT the plants they distroy/dig up as they look for seeds and nuts, ARG!

I forgot about Tanglefoot. That is a good barrier. Sevin contains carbaryl, which will kill the beneficial along with the bad bugs. If you have lots of ants, look for aphids, which they farm - they protect them from predators and eat the sticky stuff the aphids produce.

The link below tells you more than you probably want to know about ants, but if you scroll down, you will see many suggestions for managing ants.

Here is a link that might be useful: ant management