There are ants crawling all over my corn in my garden! Is that bad?

Question

I am growing corn in my garden and there are ants crawling all over them. I know they are ants because they're black and they have six legs, but is this good or bad? If it's bad, what should I do to get rid of the ants? I want to know now so I can protect my precious corn!

Answer 1

The ants are crawling around looking for other bugs to eat, or looking for sweet nextar/pollen.  I had the same thing with my corn and didn't think anything of it, but then a few weeks later noticed there were corn borers, armyworms and other beetles infesting my stalks. I lost a lot of corn to those darn things.

Ants go after sweet secretions, too, and perhaps the pollen is what they were after since the pollen floats down and lands everywhere.

But as for damage goes, ants don't eat plants or their juices.

Answer 2

Use a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. The ants will come for the sugar and take the cinnamon too.  Ants cannot digest cinnamon and when they take it back to their queen she will explode after a while and the colony will die out without her.  Cucumber peels also have the same effect as the cinnamon.  Either one is safe to use indoors or around animals.  Hope this helps!