How do I get rid of Ants

I seem to be overrun with Ants, mainly in my raised beds.

If I look at my lettuce bed there are thousands of ants running around over the lettuces.

Anyone got any good tips to get rid of them.  I have used Ant Powder where I can, but it does not seem very effective, and I can't really put it all over my lettuces.

Eagerly awaiting any top tips.

serious   they are a pain,,i do use ant powder it works for me,,,they take it back to there nest

Boiling water is good. The ants are quite a community insect and will recover their dead  and tell the others not to go there as it would be a potentially fatal mistake!

I get them invading my kitchen every spring and this year thought I had foiled their attempt then, there they were over the weekend. Indoors it's vital to wipe away their paths (they leave a trail that only ants can see and thats how they keep going back to the same places) - so I've been wiping surfaces, floors, cupboards twice daily and they seem to have gone. When they mde an attempt in near the front door again I killed 11 of them before going to bed and by morning the bodies were gone and no more ants!! :happy:

I use boiling water on the nest.  Investigate where their nest is and apply there (obviously don't pour boiling water over your plants). 

Ants don't really like the wet either so keeping the soil well watered might help. 

Are you sure they aren't living elsewhere like on your broad beans merrily harvesting the black fly honeydew? 

Ants make their own roads/ routes and tend to stick to them - so follow trail of ants, as they should take you back to the nest and then apply the powder in a circle around the nest.

or you could put ant bait traps around your lettuces - that way there is no chance or contaminating the lettuces.

i use bait stations bought from wlikos, they are small and you dont have to spray or use powder

Did you read any of the replies Matt?  If not, see replies 4 & 5.

yep i read all of the posts! - i dont understand what i did wrong, what i said hadn't been covered!  - i.e. the bait stations and the use of the powder