You know what can work well against all that?
Diatomaceous earth.
It's completely harmless to mammals etc, but will kill any bug it contacts. The diatoms cut up their shells and they dehydrate to death. IIRC, it's what's used in flea powder.
It's cheap enough and can be bought at a pool supply place and sprinkle it around the base of the plants and on them. It does need to be refreshed after it rains.
Another thing that works well is sugar and borax. I was having trouble with carpenter ants in the house from the tree outside, so I mixed a 50/50 mixture of sugar and 20 Mule team borax and spread it out along where they were traveling. They got to it and I NEVER saw another carpenter ant around after that.
That too needs to be replenished occasionally as the sugar tends to absorb moisture and if it's really humid out will get funny, but even that level of borax mixed in doesn't deter them from going after the sugar and then they get the borax as well and it kills them.
Just store it in a really airtight container.
Can I put Borax on my actual plants? I live in a 100% (I mean 100%) wood cabin with extensive wood decks that I guess these ants are chewing on and I never noticed.
After last year’s Centex drought, I decided (so far, that may change) to container garden on the decks, safe from the deer, rabbits and such.
Everything was great until a week ago when I started noticing these ants sneaking around and a week later all the tops of my plants have aphids all over the fruiting shoots.
You are absolutely right about Diatomaceous earth. It is a super thing to have around. We had a shade garden near one side of the house that became infested with snails/slugs. Diatomaceous earth solved the problem. You DO have to reapply after significant rain, but it’s great.
And guess what SUGAR does? It’s great for increasing the microbial content of the lawn, which can make it more difficult for some types of weeds. I discovered this when I was researching how to get rid of wild strawberry (which spreads like crazy and can infest any area via both its flower seeds and runners. It took hours of hand weeding (one small area at a time) to get rid of it....until I found this article: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Lawns-725/Wild-Strawberries-lawn.htm
My husband was chuckling when I decided to try a test patch of sugar on a VERY solid area of wild strawberry in a patch of lawn near the driveway. However, I am having the last laugh...and am fairly surprised as well. This really works! I have since used it on other areas and I have just about won my war with wild strawberry. And my husband is now a convert to sugar. :-D