But the other day my daughter came running inside screaming, "The patio is swarming with ants!" I went out to see what was going on and I see a ton of ants making a line across the lawn and headed directly for the pomegranate tree. They were climbing up the trunk and crawling all over the leaves! By nature, I'm the "live and let live" type when it comes to insects outdoors. So I left them alone, assuming they could do no harm. But this morning I noticed that many of the tree's leaves have shriveled up and I'm afraid that ants will kill the tree or at least ruin the fruit.

Does anyone have any information that can help me?

First of all, why are the ants suddenly attacking this tree?

Can they do real damage?

If so, what is the simplest way to get them to stop and keep them off of the tree?

I prefer a natural remedy to using chemicals, but if only chemicals will help I'm willing to go that route.

If you are a DIYer and plan on trying the Thomas' Liquid Stainless Steel you must read this first...

I was over joyed with the thought of having what I want and not having to deplete my home improvement budget.

I purchased the Thomas' Liquid Stainless Steel Range kits online and was super excited to get started. When the products arrived I watched the video multiple times and read over the directions over and over again. I was ready to begin.

The application was super easy and looked fantastic. I was very pleased. What could go wrong.

The Wrong...

After a week of using my stove the rim around the burners started turning brown. The brown ring started growing in size. The top of my stove that at one point was beautiful stainless steel was now brown and yucky. How can this be? What did I do wrong? Was I not supposed to paint the top of the range? Horror crept in. I searched the site for help and this is what I found...

"Like all stainless steel range tops, Thomas' Stainless SteelTM will 'season or bronze the stainless steel around any burner that accommodates pots or pans that are significantly wider than the burner. This bronzing typically seasons about one inch of the stainless around the burner. You can observe seasoning on all stainless steel range tops in chef's kitchens. " -Thomas' Stainless Steel

I was horrified! This was located under the FAQ tab and if I would have seen this I wouldn't have purchased the product. Who wants their over to look like it hasn't been cleaned in a year? As for seasoning, it's more like burnt paint.

The photo above was taken after I started the removal process. I wish I would've snapped a photo of the stove before hand to show how terrible it looked, but I was so embarrassed I couldn't bring myself to take the photo.

The really dark ring is usually where the black burner insert covers and the lighter brown rings show beyond the insert. This is the area of seasoning, as they call it. I call it horror.

Stop back on Monday for the part two of this post for the actual removal with photos. It surprisingly comes completely off with a awesome cleaner and a little elbow grease.