Do ants like to eat Fatsia?

I was moving some mulch from around my fatsia and ran in to an army of ants. It was dusk and I couldn't see very good. I have noticed that the plant has not been looking to good the past week or so.

Ants (especially fire ants) will sometimes build their nest under a plant, and the resulting mound can actually suffocate the plant at the crown - the place where the plant meets the ground.

Perhaps you had the mulch up next to the fatsia plant and touching it. Mulches should be kept back from the plant. That is a pathway for fungi and insects.

And if you see ants on the plant, look for aphids. Ants will tend aphids in order to get the honeydew they excrete.

The only ants that "eat" plants are leaf cutting ants, and they actually feed on the fungus that grows on the leaf. They cut circular holes in the leaves and take this down into their mound where it generates their food supply.

Do you have any advice as to ridding the area of the ants without hurting the plant?

Are the ants hurting the plant? Are they fire ants?

Ants don't eat plants so unless it's fire ants like ceejaytown mentioned I wouldn't worry about what they're doing to your plant, but I would check your plant for aphids or scale, most of the time when ants are actually crawling on my plants (as opposed to running around on the ground) it's because they're helping out the aphids and scale. If that's the case it's more important to treat the aphids & scale since those are the things that will damage the plant. I just got done (I hope) fighting some scale on my fatsia so I would definitely check for that--normally scale hangs out a lot on the stems but on my Fatsia they were hanging out on the undersides of the leaves so I'd make sure and check there too. If you don't see anything and you still want to get rid of the ants, they sell outdoor ant bait stations so you could try those, and there's also a product called Tanglefoot that you can put around the trunk so they won't climb up it.

tcinmb - Are they fire ants? Did you get stung?

I had gloves on and Lord knows I know a fire ant!! I backed out of there real fast. It was getting dark. It is probably fire ants.

Check it out tomorrow in the daylight. If it is, you'll need to take some action... I use Amdro fire ant bait. Just sprinkle a little where you see them. The workers will feed it to the queen and the colony will die off. That's what I use, and it works.

Thanks for your help. I will get out there first thing tomorrow