Ant colonies at base of perennial stems...grrrr!!

I first saw this problem last year, on every one of my Husker's Red penstemon. The leaves would wilt then the stem would fall over. At the base of the stricken stems was a mound of finely chewed mulch. In the mound were tiny red ants, and on the stem what looked to be aphids. The problem came from the stem under the mound being stripped of its outer coating and probably having the juice sucked out. This year the penstemon are fine; the ants are mounding at the stems of my monarda!! Most of the damage was done while we were on vacation. Yesterday I knocked open every mound I saw and sprayed the base of the stem with Bayer 3-in-one.
Why can't bugs & bunnies attack weeds instead of my pretty flowers & tasty veggies??

"Why can't bugs & bunnies attack weeds instead of my pretty flowers & tasty veggies?"

Because many weeds have nasty tasting oils or stickers or something that discourages the bugs and herbivores. Often the flowers are not very pretty.
This makes them so they discourage us from eating them, too, so vegetable plants are bred so they do not contain those oils.
Plants are bred for pretty flowers, even if they somehow miss out on passing on the oil production.
Plants are bred not to have nasty stickers, or irritating fuzz so they are easier to handle.
Fertilizer makes lots of tender new growth, and even if the plant normally has the oils that discourage herbivores the new growth may not have it right away.

Well, once you dilute or omit the stuff that discourages bugs and other pests, the bugs and bunnies move in to eat these nice, tender plants.

But I thought bunnies loved clover flowers...my neighbor's lawn is full of them, yet they ate every flower off my sea pinks & left the clover alone!

I know nothing about dealing with the bunnies,(don't have a problem with them here), but when it comes to the ants, I have used coffee grounds with good success. And a bonus is that it can be good for the garden soil too.

Id get some good ant bait that kills the colony like Amdro.

http://www.lowes.com/Search=amdro?storeId=10151&langId=-1&catalogId=10051&N=0&newSearch=true&Ntt=amdro#!

Coffee grounds I have, and will try that. I also have ant baits (Terro) that I've used indoors and on the patio. I really don't llike spraying chemicals, trying to use the Good bug Bad bug method. And I did see a young praying mantis recently.
Thanks for your replies!

I also don't like using chemicals…I garden not only for my own enjoyment, but also to benefit our wildlife!
Coffee grounds may not kill the critters, but it does make them 'move on'.

You can get those bait stations so you dont have to spray anything. They have a bait that they take back to the queen and kills the colony. They use those bait stations all the time in organic production. The link I provided is a granule I dont like to spray either. Do coffee grounds work well? I dont drink coffee so I dont have any of those. Let us know how it goes.

This message was edited Jul 17, 2013 9:38 PM

Bait stations sound like a possible cure…especially if they work on the Red Ants…If that is your problem…If you are a coffee drinker though, and the problem is just the "run of the mill" ant colony…Might be a cheaper way to go.