I used Garden Safe Insecticidal Soap and neem oil, and sprayed the plants with a hose diligently to knock them off each leaf, but the population still exploded. The ants moved them into my ground cherries and I lost the whole harvest (60ish ground cherries)- this is what is pictured.
Ants (little black ants that don’t bite) are a huge problem in my complex, there’s multiple colonies. I thought they were actually being helpful eating the aphids at first.
My setup: I have a small townhouse backyard, I have two garden beds, 4 small raised beds, and lots of containers lol nothing in-ground because I rent. I live in a very difficult gardening environment, very high altitude and very short growing season due to the late last frost and early first frost (growing season about 100 days).
Due to the short growing season, I plan for months in advance, start seeds indoors, and late May to early June I can finally get the veggies outside and plant starts.