Topic: Ants everywhere, help!

[Potato]

Hi everyone, I was hoping someone could help me with my ant problem.  There seems to be ants everywhere. Will they do any damage to my vegetables and fruit plants?  and how should I get rid of such a large quantity?.  I have noticed little holes in my salad leaves and broad bean leaves are these caused by ants?  Many thanks

[Robert_Brenchley]

Ants don't eat veg, so relax. The only harm they do is to encourage aphids, and occasionally to disturb the roots of pot plants by digging out the compost making their burrows. On the other hand, they're predatory, and must kill off large numbers of small invertebrates. Personally I leave them alone.

[Lizzie]

Hmmm - Potato, I'm  with you. I've got loads of red ants too, and lots of holes in rocket leaves. Plus, they;re all over the broad beans and it looks very much like they're eating the succulent new shoots. I know they eat rosebuds - I saw them doing that very thing only yesterday - why not veggies as well?

Any ideas? Is Nippon arouind the base of the plants a good idea or not?

Lizzie

[Squashmad]

I have lots of ants in my polytunnel too and I just let them get on with it now- they never seem to harm the plants. Live and let live!  ;)

[loulou]

iv got thousands of ants in my compost bin will they hurt my worms   ???  i cant stand them ( bad experience when i was a girl ) but i cant kill them eather   ::)  just don't want my worms hurt  any ideas

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's a nice warm spot for a nest, that's why; I get them regularly. They bring soil right up to the top under the lid. They don't seem to do any harm at all in there.

[saddad]

The holes in the salads sound like flea beetles, and the broad beans are probably pea and bean weevil, esp. if there are squareish notches in the edges. Ants do no real harm and are only a real pain when they fly...
 ???

[MollyBloom]

The only real damage I can think of is that they will "farm" aphids on plants we would rather keep pest-free. They transport the aphids to the tenderest part of the plants, let them eat their fill, and "milk" them for their own purposes - a little like humans farming cows, except we don't care about grass getting eaten but we DO care about our crops! (Sorry, complicated sentence, had a bad night last night...)  :P

[Hyacinth]

I've also found that they can seriously undermine roots of young plants to the extent that I've lost plantlets. Nope, death to all ants. >:(

Some while back, someone on the Beeb site recommended Ant Stop spray. I use this round my tubs and in the coldframes to great effect. :D

[telboy]

loulou,
Like wise in my compost bin. As the contents were 12 months old it was time to use it. Lifted the whole 'darlek' off to get at it & the whole mass was one (or more) huge ants nest(s).
Spread it all, so I expect to have 2-3 million ants nests on the plot?
It's that time of the year when they build in the lawns which I don't like. The 'puffer' comes out then.

[stuffed]

I was wondering the same thing one of my blueberry plants is slowly disapearing and I have seen ants on it but nothing else so I'm sure these are the culprits.  Can I use ant killer powder near edibles? I don't want to poison myself. ::)
P.S Even if it isn't them eating it I hate them and want them dead anyway.

[Hyacinth]

I've today broken open an ants nest in one of the mounds intended for a couple of courgettes to sprawl over. Spread out the contents (eggs) and hope the birds will have a good supper tonight.

Stuffed.....there should be guidelines on your fave poison?

[stuffed]

Haven't looked yet, going out to try and get some tomorrow (hopefully).
Just thought I'd ask as there was already an apprpriate thread.

[sallylockhart]

when I was young my mum used to send me out with a kettle of boiling water to pour down any ants nests in the patio / paving slabs that I could find. Obviously not ideal if they are nesting in your plants, but better than chemicals.

sl

[Merlins Mum]

This is probably going to sound really daft but I got rid of a lot of mine by sprinkling semolina near to where they were.  I had read it somewhere on the web and thought it was worth a try.  Apparently the ants take is back to the queen to eat but because it expands inside her, it kills her.

MM

[angle shades]

why do you want to kill and poison everything when its an insect? I dont spray anything or use any chemicals I work with nature. You will never get rid of ants they have a colony of workers who will move any larvae you disturb somewhere else and they are bird food.Think of your health and the rest of the wildlife around you before you poison everything :-* By the way my greenhouse is on an ant colony, every year on a hot day they swarm I just keep the door and window open ;D/shades x

[Hyacinth]

horses for courses, Shades :-\

me, I'm wondering if the Queen likes a blob of raspberry jam on her semolina ;D

[stuffed]

why do you want to kill and poison everything when its an insect?

I don't kill all insects but I do really have a thing about ants, I think it stems back to a school trip to France and an incident in the dormatory I was in.... But that's another story. ::)

[tabbycat]

i like ants - i think that they seem to be quite cheerful little things. They always seem so positive somehow (sorry - am very anthropomorphic in my outlook on life! :))

However, I've got a red ants nest in my lawn and lots on the allotment which is not so good. Have told the girls not to go out without flip flops on and to leave them well alone.
I think I will see how it goes. At the moment they are not a problem, and I do love watching the starlings picking them up and leting them crawl on their wings to kill the parasites in their feathers.

[Robert_Brenchley]

They're useful things, but red ants do bite, and a large ant has a formidable bite, often assisited by formic acid sprayed over the wound. My mother once told me that in Malaya (where she grew up) they used to abandon the house occasionally when army ants arrived, and they'd go through and get every bug in the place.