Can anyone, please, please, please................tell me what to do to prevent ants on my outdoor dining table at mealtimes?
I have oil burners and citronella candles which work wonders on flies etc, but the little black b****** will not be deterred.
Desperate for some assistance and hopeful of your help. ]

Anteater ???

Ant spray on the legs of the table may help.

Stand the table legs in bowls filled with paraffin, or other light oil, failing that make a low stand with the stands legs in oil and place the table legs on the stand

You can buy ant killer in a small tube. Squeeze some round the bottom of the legs and they won't climb up - they'll be too attracted to the stuff in the tube !
Alternatively, just put ant powder round the bottom of the legs.

I've got ants all over our young apple tree and a friend suggested wrapping selotape around the trunk to stop them. Haven't tried it yet, but might work for you as well.

Thank you for these ideas. As I am in an area very vulnerable at this time of year to fire I will keep away from the paraffin / oil suggestion. I dont like using sprays on eco grounds, but will try Blaze's suggestion for powder or the tube stuff , unfortunately the local supermarket appeared to have nothing like this today. I had hoped for a natural - aromatherapy type answer!

Another solution is WD40. The smell goes away after a short while - it does work. I also use it to keep bloody snails away. It's non toxic , apparently.

Did you find a cure??

If not then standing the table in bowls filled with water will do the job... That won't catch fire either

Well, yes. First I smothered the table in WD40 which did help enormously, and secondly we moved the table. Most of them were falling/jumping out of the overhanging tree branches!

How did you stop the plates sliding off of the table?

Did you know that WD40 stands for WD water displacement number 40 was the 40th attempt to come up with something that repelled/displaced water. Not a bad result ehhhhh?

you can get tree grease-bands which are designed to keep crawling insects from making their way up your fruit trees and work like the sellotape idea but will last all summer.