Ants In Potted Plants...Please Help!!!

I have 6 potted plants on my patio. I live in a downstairs apartment, concrete patio with soil around 3 sides of it. I don't really see any ants in the soil around my patio or plants that are in the ground, only in my potted plants. My Spider Plant (Airplane plant, whatever it's called) died last month, suddenly. When I went to throw out the dead plant, there was no dirt in the planter and hundreds of ants! No wonder it died! No dirt! Those little thieves stole it! Don't know what they did with the dirt. I've never seen any ants on my patio but there were hundreds in that container (no hole in the bottom, ceramic planter).

I water my potted plants every Sunday and last week when I watered one of the ivy's (no hole in the bottom, ceramic container) and my bamboo plant (holes in bottom, plastic container), tons of ants appeared and started going crazy. They didn't appear until I watered the plants. They apparently do NOT like water. I didn't have ants in these 2 plants until last week. I don't want them to die from these ants like the other plant did.

I've never heard of ants living in potted plants but they do! I know that now! Is there some kind of ant killer I can use that will kill the ants but not the plants? Give them a good soil soaking? I'm already noticing that these 2 ant infested plants aren't looking so good either because of those little thieves!

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! I work hard on keeping my plants healthy and don't want to see any more of them die because of these pesky thieving ants!

TIA,

The easiest remedy would be a topdressing of granules (such as diazinon).. Ant killer granules are available in several brand names at just about any garden center. Don't be bashful about telling the nursery people about your problem.

If you are looking for an organic solution, I recommend a product called Orange Guard (available at some Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.). It's also available on the web at www.orangeguard.com.

Good luck.