My garden is full of ants, but I thought they are harmless and so I have been putting up with them till now. However, yesterday I noticed that a pot plant has some aphids in it, and a lot of ants were running up and down the plant and there was a distinct ant-full path to the plant.
I found some similar questions here, but I want to ask the following: Should I fight the aphids or the ants first, and how?
I would like to use bio/organic/safe ways of getting rid of the pests.
You might have a case of ants farming the aphids. If this is the case, tackling the aphids will not likely be productive as the ants will just replace the aphids. I suspect you will need to attack the ant nest directly. The suggestion I thought would work best from the above link was pouring boiling chili water down the nest.
A teaspoon of dish soap mixed with a quart of water and sprayed on will knock down the population of aphids and kill some ants. Leave it on a minute or two and give the plant a good wash down afterwards with water. (This is in case it is a plant with delicate leaves like lettuce or the mixture has too much soap and the fatty acids burn the leaves.)
Use neem oil or soapy water/insecticidal soap for the aphids. Most species of ants are slightly beneficial, except when they are running a protection racket on some aphids.
