Ants in a garden are natural. Their tunnels break up the soil. Some types are clean up the dead bugs, etc. The kind to worry about those that guard and milk aphids. In that case, I use an all natural aphid killer - spray vegetable oil to smother them. No aphids, no ants.

Unless they are causing me some type of problem, I leave ants alone because they are the natural enemy of termites. I'll take ants over termites any time.

Just in case, how can I tell the difference between ants and termites, are there any distinguishing features that I need to look for?

Thanks, you both have been very helpful.

Scott

Ants come in a variety of sizes and colors and look a little different from termites. Termites normally are off-white, not too fast moving, one size (except for queens, etc.) Once a year for a few days, non-white, winged ones come out of the ground and "swarm". You could probably find some good pictures of both ants and termites by looking on the Web or get a book on insect pests from the library.