My site has 2 ant hills both about 30 feet away from it. They both are red ant hills, does anyone know if they will be problematic?...
Ants do not eat weed. BUT BUT they are great farmers - they farm aphids and eat the honeydew that they secrete. They may well introduce aphids onto your grow.
I had a huge problem with scale on my plants last summer. After getting rid of the ants, I haven't seen any more on my plants. Coincidence? I don't know. Red ants (fire-ants?) are predatory ants. I don't think they are the type that farms aphids and scale so you may not have the problem I did. While I don't want to encourage anyone to destroy another living thing, if you do notice hard little lumps (scale) on the stems of your plants or tiny green/brown things on the undersides of the leaves and stems (aphids), it could well be that those pests were introduced and are protected by the ants. In that case a handful of Amdro around the mounds should clear them out.
I had a Red Ant community move into the "pit" of one of my holes late in June. Those guys are little bastards. I tried flooding them each time I watered but to no avail. They ultimately did no harm to my plants or the root structure thank god, but if they get on your shoes as you wander your plot they crawl up and bite you unmercifully. I hate those shits for that reason alone. I would suggest killing them at first sight.
I had ants also in one of my grows last year... I just kept watering and eventually they left. But i was watering quite regularly what with live in Spain and all.
I heard corn startch/meal, baking soda, or instant oatmeal will kill them because it expands in there stomach when they at it and they die... Yeah I am going to kill them, I hear that if there aren't enough bugs for them prey on they will start eating your plants. They are omnivores and are attracted to sugars.