Combat ready ants seem to have taken over my garden,?

Question

The acursed things have even got in my sweet corn and sting like mad when I pick it.

Answer 1

Well since you are too close to eating the ears of corn you might want to go organic as far as treating this problem.

This will keep away any critter and is organic. Everything from Bugs to small mammals will avoid this:

One tablespoon of Garlic powder per pint of water. Finer garlic powder is best since it dissolves the best. Put into a spray bottle shake for several minutes add a drop of dish soap per pint will help the garlic adhere to the leaves  (and corn stalks)  and stay around longer. Apply liberally.

If you are doing a large area use one of those large spray tanks and calculate how many pints are in it and use the garlic powder accordingly.  After watering or a heavy rain apply more. If spray mechanism gets clogged consider putting a tiny piece of screen or nylon (from old stockings) material over spray bottle straw as a strainer to keep out garlic powder. Good hint is to tap bottle bottom will also help to free any clogs but the nylon or screen material works best. Attach material with a small rubber band. Apply liberally and re-spray after a rain or watering.

Usually ants are typically around for short periods in large numbers. Meaning you could treat this once and they are so annoyed that they will go elsewhere and then die off a couple weeks later- as their life cycle is very short.