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Re: Ants in compost in California

>I am located in Southern California not the deep south. The ants are tiny
>black ants. I have always seen them around the house and from time to time
>they will visit my garbage can. As long as they don't do any harm to my
>garden then I will ignore them. I was surprised at their numbers though.

<SNIP>

>Kurt
>(Southern California Zone 9)

        Hello All and Kurt,

        We also have many of the small black ants. I think they are
called "Argentine" ants. When it is summer,they come in the house looking
for water. When it is winter, if it rains,they are looking for some place
dry. We don't have a compost pile :-( because of our small yard.

        The one thing you must do is _keep the ants out of the garden._
They farm the aphids. We have aphids now, as I'm sure you do too.
There aren't many, because the temps at night have been way down to
the 40s recently. I guess I shouldn't say that- we did have a few days
in the high 70s, because of the Santa Ana winds. I was worried that the
sugar snap peas would fall over.

        I suggest following the idea given about turning the compost to
disturb them. I do use ant stakes to help keep down the numbers in my
raised beds, and strong bursts of water keep the aphid population down.

KGB (Katherine M. Grine Barto) barto@popmail.ucsd.edu
Gardener, Cook and Keeper of: 3 Cats and Husband
Sunset Zone 21, Poway, California
At Home with my MAC
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