so i was noticing today that my vines were wilty...they had some holes towards the base and some frass was present. my thought: vine borer. i went in and got a small, sharp knife to slit and remove the bugs...but what i found was not a vine borer. i found massive colonies of tiny black ants, winged ants and their eggs.

:drop:

nothing i'm reading is telling me what the heck is going on and why they should be in my vines. i did find pill bugs in there too, but i understand they are kind of the jackals coming in after the damage is done. i've got so many pillbugs in my gardens that the soil literall moves when you lift a leaf to look...it's nasty. no major damage that i can see so i leave them be but it's gross.

why would there be colonies of ants inside my pumpkin vines? i removed two entire pumpkin plants and one zucchini plant today due to this same problem.

did not find *any* squash borers.