Could you give them something that doesn’t harm the plants, that might lure them where they won’t bother you, and that won’t make the problem worse in a different way?
Maybe they’d like something you normally throw away in relatively small quantities that won’t attract something worse or poison anything?
Argentine ants are altogether too numerous to meaningfully distract or redirect for long. If there’s a new ____ source, they’ll find a way to dive in and then produce a sister colony like 40 feet away. My options amount to either spreading poison, thereby killing a non-negligible sum of rabbits and neighborhood dogs, or killing the ants. I can always grow poisonous or undesirable veggies, but I can only take so many years of mustard, parsley, garlic, and tomatoes.
Could you give them something that doesn’t harm the plants, that might lure them where they won’t bother you, and that won’t make the problem worse in a different way?
Maybe they’d like something you normally throw away in relatively small quantities that won’t attract something worse or poison anything?
e: disclaimer: IANAG. I am terrible with plants.
Argentine ants are altogether too numerous to meaningfully distract or redirect for long. If there’s a new ____ source, they’ll find a way to dive in and then produce a sister colony like 40 feet away. My options amount to either spreading poison, thereby killing a non-negligible sum of rabbits and neighborhood dogs, or killing the ants. I can always grow poisonous or undesirable veggies, but I can only take so many years of mustard, parsley, garlic, and tomatoes.