The ants have taken over! They have built nests in the dirt and they are all over the leaves and vines and dirt. How do I kill them safely, and cheap!?

Have they done any damage?

If not, why not just leave them alone?

They are getting everything out of the flowers, and the flowers are dying and falling off the vine before cucumber can bloom. They are putting holes in the leaves. I can't check any of the plants without getting attacked by them and getting multiple bites. There are tiny black ants, big black ants, and reddish colored ants.

Do you know if any are fire ants, they do bite.
If it was my garden and the ants were so extensive I would hire a professional to treat the soil. But I have to say, I would replant the vegetables into tubs and grow that way until the ant issue was resolved.

Personally, I would do nothing to the ants, I'd expand the vegetable patch, and.... Let them have the area they've claimed.
I garden with fire ants... Mostly not a problem.
http://stonethegardener.tumblr...
In droughts, they will raid the tomatoes for moisture, but mostly they are beneficial.
What we actually need...
Is more information... What kind of bed are you gardening in, how many years?
What's the weather like, what amendments are you using?

In all honesty, your description of the problem seems very unusual, I think there is something else going on.

There are 4 watermelon plants and 4 cucumber plants, planted together in an old baby pool. Lifted up off the ground about a foot (maybe more) and just planted this year, about a month or so ago. Not sure what type of ants there are, I'll try to snap a photo

The reddish ones that are there are possibly fire ants. They bite!
The small dark ones may be pavement ants or sugar ants. The big black ones often colonize trees and shrubs often getting into homes.

Why are you planting in a wading pool?
Your growing watermelon which like a deep, rich soil. Cucumbers often grow best on a trellis or fence. By growing in a wading pool you might be creating a watering problem.

Hi Mariah and welcome to NGA!

You can try DE - diatomaceious earth. It's totally organic and not a poison so it won't poison your fruit. However, it is totally indiscriminate in what it kills and will kill good bugs like bees as well. Therefore you ONLY want to sprinkle it on the ground around the ant mounds - mix it into the top of the soil around the mounds if possible. Do not get it on the leaves or the flowers or anywhere a bee might land on the plant and only do this on a still day as you do not want to inhale any of it. Use a spoon.

Here is how it works - DE is the skeletons of diatoms and to insects it's like walking through shards of glass for them. When an insect gets it on them they groom themselves and eat it. What it does once they ingest it is tear up their digestive track. It also scratches the bodies of the insects as they walk through it and caused them to dry out.

It will have to be reapplied after heavy rains.

There are holes placed in the bottom of the pool for excess water, and I also have lattice underneath the pool for the vines to grow out on. Both plant vines are growing well, but the flowers are dying from the ants and the leaves as well. The plant and vines look very healthy but the flowers and leaves, not so much! And yes, these ants bite, and they hurt! Here's a photo of the red ants. The black ones bite as well though!

The damage to the cucumber leaf... I would not ascribe to the ants.
I wouldn't even worry about that small damage at my house.

Ants always move into those soil filled containers.
No surprise there.
Getting pots back from the ants.... Usually involves making it too wet for them.
At my house, I put the container in a saucer or tub or something to drown the ants out.
Not sure anything can be done with the wading pool.

Suggest starting an in-ground bed.
Side-by-side comparisons are always a good idea.

I ordered some of the DE, going to try that!

Did your watermelons and cucumbers cross pollinate? I had that happen and it was the worst cucumbers and melons ever. I learned quickly to plant them far apart

In TX, we have lots of fire ants, terrible stings. We've noticed that they seem to have crossbred with the sugar ants, so now they also sting. It's not as bad a sting, but still to be avoided. I put out fire ant poison.

Re ants in the garden: I've had a good portion of the cauliflower and cabbage seedlings in my backyard garden killed by ants. To all appearances, they are the same ones that abundantly populate all the sidewalk cracks, etc., here in Seattle. They are also commonly called "sugar ants", as they frequently invade homes to get at the spilled sugar in our kitchen cupboards.

In the garden, they swarm all over the stems of aforesaid plants at ground level, chewing all the soft tissue away, thus girdling and killing the plants. Diatomaceous earth liberally applied had no effect whatsoever. Some spray containing cypermethrin did the ants in nicely, but they come back in 4-5 days. Also, the spray leaves a lingering unpleasant odor even weeks afterward.

I found a gardening forum post from 6 years ago that describe the situation quite accurately: https://www.houzz.com/discussi...