Are little black ants harmful to garden plants?

I have several dierent plants in my yard and just discovered black ants crawling along many of them.

In some cases there were small clusters of ants on some of the flowers.

Is this something I can ignore or do I need to spray them with something?

Are little black ants harmful to garden plants?
If the ants are clustering on the flowers, they may be eating and damaging them. I would look for signs of the plants being damaged, then decide whether to spray them.
Reply:black ants are good!
Reply:Ants do not eat plants. They may carry off the sap from the plants or nectar and they evey carry aphids from plant to plant like little aphid farmers but they most likely are not eating the plants.

Use only certified organic sprays in the garden.
Reply:Besides the ants feeding on the flower nectar, a lot of black ants on your plants are usually an indicator of aphids. Look on the underside of the leaves for tiny black, brown or white spots that are actually insects that suck the juices from the leaves and cause them to turn yellow. The ants feed on the sugary excretions from the aphids. Eliminate the aphids and the ants will leave.
Reply:If ants are on your flowers look for aphids.
Reply:I would just get rid of them. You have to figure ants are gatherers and they want food. Your plants are food. A good way to take care of them without hurting your garden with pesticides is use a mix of cinnamon and sugar. The ants will pick up the sugar, along with the cinnamon, and take it back to their queen. Ants can’t digest cinnamon and once the queen dies from not being able to digest the cinnamon the colony will die without her.