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Re: Ants in compost

At 01:54 PM 2/6/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Kurt,
>
>You may have killed some of the microbes in your compost pile when you
>added the boiling water. As most have said, let the ants be, they'll help
>you out. We tend to leave any bugs/grubs/slugs in our compost pile since
>they all help with the process. In addition to scaring the ants away, your
>pile will also compost faster and stay hotter if you turn it more
>frequently.
>
>I've had luck with keeping ants away from selected crops by sprinkling HOT
>cayenne pepper around the plants.
>
>Natalie McNair-Huff
>Happily Gardening in Tacoma, WA Sunset zone 5; USDA Zone 7/8
>Publisher/Editor Mac Net Journal http://www.blol.com/web_mnj/
>
>
Natalie,
You might want to try ground cinnamon also.  I used it and got mixed
results.  I had ants move into my raised bed. I sprinkled the cinnamon over
the infected? area and the ants moved out pretty quickly.  I used genric
cinnamon and sprinkled it over the hay mulch.
However, when I tried the same trick at the base of a tree, the ants made a
path through the cinnamon and went about their way.
I got the tip from here on the list.  The origional poster said to try the
really strong smelling spices.  I'm gona try experimenting with others to
see if that will help.  I've also wondered if making a paste of the spice
might help.
Any tips or comments for keeping ants out of trees is welome.
Happy Gardening,
Dawn S.
Long Beach CA (zone 10)
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