Red Ants - Help!

[posie]

Ok after digging my fantastic 6ft x 2ft strip, it turns out I've really really annoyed a red ants nest, anyone any ideas what I can do bout them cos my legs really hurt where the little ***** bit me! And apparently there are quite a few nests on my plot.

[posie]

[donlottie]

You poor thing!! sorry no advice other than tuck your trousers in your socks before putting you boots on, I do that to stop any bugs.

[gerbera]

I have the same problem. I rached into the compost bin to check the contents and was rewarded with a gloveful of the little bu&&ers! >:(

[RSJK]

Give them a drink of Jeyes Fluid, that will sort them out

[Lauren S]

You could always pour on some boiling water either from a kettle or a flask.
What I also have been doing (with my Marigolds on)...grab a handful of the ants nest and rub like crazy and keep doing this until most have gone.
I've turned into a real murderer    :o

Lauren  ;D

[posie]

Well they almost had a reprieve in that I figured nature must have a use for them and whereever they were the soil was nice n crumbly and easy to dig. And then they came out wielding ninja swords and nunchuks and attacked me again. So........boiling water it is I'm afraid! ;)

[JIS]

I have so many red ants on my plots. They are a nightmare, they are far worse than black ants, much hard to kill.

Red ants are MUCH harder to kill than black ants.

I tried to purge the lot over a week period, went to the plot every day armed with a cocktail of ant killer spray, derris dust, ant power, nippon, and coke. Every day I went hunting, found the nests and coated them in everything I had, chased the ants down as they tried running away (you see them pick up the eggs and run!)... I think some 30 ant nests were powdered.

3 weeks later, I still have a red ant *infested* plot :(
I am forever being bitten.

The upside...
BLACK ants farm blackfly, whereas red ants kill the blank ants.
RED ants don't seem to do any harm to the crops as far as I can tell. Although I wonder about my strawberries...


If anyone has a fantastic method to mass kill red ants please let me know, the powders and sprays just aren't good enough. They might take care of black ants, but red ants are hardy. I was thinking about using one of those flame gun/burner type devices on them.

Just thought I'd edit the message to add that I'm normally a nice placid person who isn't a crazed killer.

[pigeonseed]

I didn't realise I was so tolerant. I just thought scratched arms and ant bites on the feet were a natural gardening hazard. If I need to go near a nest to dig I just put wellies on and keep an eye out for them. If I see them crawling on me I brush them off.

There are tons of them in my plot - red, yellow, black - it's a multicoloured world of ants.

[Lauren S]

I would be sooooooo tempted to get one of those flame guns. Nothing nicer than BBQ'd ants for some itch free gardening  ;D  ;D

Lauren  ;)

[Sparkly]

I haven't found any red ant nests but I have quite a few black ant nests. I haven't bothered about them as they don't bite, but will they do any harm?

[emmak]

I tried to purge the lot over a week period, went to the plot every day armed with a cocktail of ant killer spray, derris dust, ant power, nippon, and coke.

I'm assuming coke is coka cola not coal substitute or class A drugs  :-*

BUT I'm still confused - does coke kill ants?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Get some borax, and mix a bit up with jam or similar. Put it doen near the nests, preferably under cover so bees and the like can't get it. The ants will take it back to the nest and feed it to others before they die.

[donlottie]

I have dug 3 beds so far. The soil is lovely but I am aware that there seems to be no insects, out of the 3 beds I have probably seen around 10 worms - is this good or bad

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's pretty low, but that could be because the soil's dry and they've gone down deep. Woems like organic matter; the more you put in, the more wrigglers you get.

[posie]

Can I just add that they seem to have packed up and moved house now (either that or they're waiting in the shadows to pounce lol) , would have posted earlier but pc down with nasty trojan - I hate people who make those programs - target Microsoft if you really must, but leave me alone!  >:(