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Re: Ants


     Hi Brian,
     
     My compost pile frequently gets ant nests. I find if I turn it 
     vigorously once a week they don't settle in. Ants in the compost have 
     never hurt my garden where I put it. However, I do have ants in the 
     veggie garden, too. They nibble on carrots and beets, and steal seeds 
     sometimes, and they farm the aphids and maybe even the whiteflies, but 
     I can see no way to get rid of them, and they don't do that much 
     damage overall. The strong spray of water trick works on the aphid and 
     whitefly farming. As JonquilJan said, keeping the pile hot will deter 
     them. And I imagine JJ is right about them helping to spread things 
     more evenly. My answer is, anything you could do to get rid of them 
     entirely would make your compost unusable, and of course you can use 
     the compost they were in, no harm done. Ants in your veggie garden 
     will not hurt the soil, but can air it out a little, not as much as 
     worms, though. But they will nibble on things. Cultivating around your 
     plants helps to disturb them and they will go somewhere else.
     
     HTH,
     Shawn
     swestaway@coh.org
     Claremont, CA  USDA9b Sunset19

     
     
Dear all,
     
I started to turn over the compost in my bin this weekend and 
found an ant nest. There are hundreds of ants and eggs.
     
Is there anything I can do to get rid of them ? 
Can I use the compost ?
Will the ants hurt my soil/plants ?
     
Brian Blackett (Blackpool, UK)


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