Pests - hydroponics sometimes gets them too

While growing hydroponically reduces the medium in which pests and fungus' come from, we still get the occasional bothersome critter that comes in and does some damage - especially since our nursery is located outdoors on our farm on Lantau Island!  So we thought it would be helpful to begin providing some images, tips and help to address these issues that all gardeners and farmers face, as well as to get you to chime in with your expertise.

We arrived one morning to see our newly minted bok choi seedlings lopped off at the top (pictured is a larger bok choi that had the same thing happen).  The culprit?

A fire ant. It had moved down the line and taken the top off of 100 seedlings.  the lettuce was spared, but that week's bok choi seedlings were attacked.

Every pest has a different thing they don't like and we've found that ants do not like garlic.  So we mixedup a garlic spray to protect the plants.  Our seedlings have not had a return visit.

Have you found anything else that helps keep the ants away and your plants safe that's not toxic or artificial? Let us know!