Hundreds of fire ants on my pepper plants

[Francis Barnswallow]

I noticed today that my pepper plants have hundreds of fire ants on them. I flipped a few leafs over and noticed tiny egg like things (or maybe tiny white mites?) about the size of a poppy seed on the underside of the leafs.

Is this a good or bad thing? Do they eat the leaves/peppers?

I'm concerned because my peppers are doing great this year and I figured something would destroy them.

[hendi_alex]

The ants are not likely after your pepper plants but are after and in fact spreading the aphids on the pepper plants. Try using a water stream to wash the aphids off of the plant or try insecticidal soap. Get rid of the aphids and the ants will lose interest.

[Francis Barnswallow]

On closer inspection thats exactly what the ants were doing. I sprayed organic insecticide soap on them. Hopefully they'll be gone tomorrow.

[Fig3825]

I had an aphid problem on my snow peas earlier this year (before I replanted due to some stupid, careless mistakes that I covered in other posts...). There were tons of them snuggled up on the leaves all over a couple of my snow peas. Subsequently, as I was replanting, I found a nest of red ants down in the soil below. I dug their entire nest up and discarded them. The ants are aphid 'tenders' and they have a relationship, so it makes perfect sense that you would find them both in the same area and on the same plants. The aphids provide honeydew for the ants and in return, the ants protect the aphids. Kill them all!

I, personally, think it's good to keep ants out of the garden because, in the end, they'll tend aphids on your plants and use your planting skills as an excuse to raise a food source for themselves.

[Francis Barnswallow]

It appears that the soap worked. Only a few ants remain.