A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Ants in my plants...

Hello everyone, hoping you could give me some advice on small "sweet" ants in tomato plant pots.

We currently have 9 plants in 5-gallon buckets and the ants are all over the soil, making homes in the pots!! Is it possible they could damage the roots or leaves at all?? If so, what can I do about it?? They aren't crawling all over the leaves too bad, just in the soil, but there are MANY of them. After battling BER for months last year, I'm really hoping to get a lot of tomatoes this year. The plants are doing extremely well, as long as the ants don't hurt them everything will be fantastic!

Thanks in advance for your expertise on this subject

If you soak the pots in a tub of water for 10 minutes or so, the ants will move on. Repeat once a week instead of normal watering if you like. They won't directly damage the plants but the fact they're there suggests it's a dry spot for them.