[whippersnapper]

We've always had alot of ants in this area and they've never been much trouble. But now they have taken things too far!!!  

What happens is they seem to gather (nest?) around the main stem of my maturing calabrese and start to remove the soil from around its base. Each evening I go down and try to scare them away, covering the exposed stem back up. Then by the next day they've been hard at work and uncovered it again!!! I can't see the plant lasting very long if they continue this little game with me.

Any ideas? I'm going to go and drench the area with water now, see if that gets them to move on.

[viettaclark]

You see.....! The critters can control you....they could surely take over the world (with dandelions)

[Trebor]

Water may work if you do it regularly. Disturbing the nest also helps, but probably not the best idea around calabrese. Nematodes are a good idea, but cost quite a bit.

(They are a pain around here and I even have them in the head of a globe artichoke this year).

[mumofstig]

put some ant bait down where they dig, they'll take it back to the nest and that should be that

[Dave Mack]

Yep as Mum said , i use a thing call Nippon ... its a liquid form , place a few drops on a stone at the base of where the ants are being a pest ... within a couple of days they will be gone