ants in my garden

Proprietary ant powder sprinkled near or into the nest.

As long as the ants are not near to the house then I would live with them. I have lots of ant nests all around the place and they do no real harm to the plants and are food for the birds that visit!

Ants will eat through the roots of plants if they get in the way of their next. Additionally they create air pockets so that the roots can't absorb water.

Well I must say that mine mainly live under the patio or down in the gravel area, so no plants are damaged. We had some spectacular hatching and flights about two weeks ago, there were so many, but after about half an hour they had all gone and you wouldn't know they were there!

Mine damage the plant root as they seem to be in it, so I use ant powder or the plant dies.

You can't eradicate them completely though, just discourage them from certain areas.

I wouldn't want to eradicate anything completely.... You can keep ants out of pots and containers by raising up on feet or stones and covering the drainage hole(s) with a piece of J Cloth.

I like the J cloth idea for pots :))

A tip I got from Bamboo and it works

Flying ants also provide good food for the swallows and house martins, it would be a shame to kill them off.

Agree!

Like MG I only get rid if they are interfering with a plant or very near the house otherwise I leave them alone.