Possible Ant damage?

So i palnted my seedlings on the first of may. Some died through frosts and some were eaten by snails. Now i found that there're ant colonies inside my pots. Can this be the cause of the slow growth of the plants. They're a month old and like 2 inches max with only 1 set of leaves. Really sucks. Planted them on ground and drowned as many ants as i could .

Ive had the same thing happen to a couple of my outdoor plants last year, im not sure what kind of damage ants can cause to the roots but I know that they might start to farm aphids on your plant's foliage which can cause anywhere from a little to a lot of damage depending on the size and health of the plant. I managed to get a decent yield even with ants in the container, but i did spray the foliage with a homemade organic bug repellent a couple times. Trying to drown the ants might not be a good idea, as the amount of water needed to do that may also hurt the roots. Neem oil may be your best bet to get rid of them.

i just planted the plants into the ground and the ants started panicing and running away because they didn't like the soil. The pots were on a clayish ground before which was eventually a huge ant colony. (Around 500 squaremeters or so). So i took the plants to a place whit black,fertile,and a bit more wet soil and they went away. Hope it's not too late.