Compost

[thornton19uk]

Hi

Hope this is in the right forum area.

Me and my wife have a compost pile and the compost at the bottom is ready to use but while getting some out the other day we found a very large ants nest .

Is this compost still o.k. to use or do we have to kill the ants first ?

Sorry if this is a dumb question but we are new to all this stuff.

Thanks John and Angel

[Capsid]

It's OK to use, ants are not a pest for most veg although they can overwhelm a stem if they build a nest around the roots. I had this with a courgette plant this year but I disrupted the nest and it's fine now.

[rainbowbrite]

i started a thread on here for the same thing and the advice i got was to leave them to it unless it really becomes a problem. i have to say that they have caused me no bother

[thornton19uk]

Thank you very much for the help.

[shushkin!]

Hi Thornton
Ants are attracted to the dry areas of compost so wet it to get it damp and they will up sticks to pastures new. I have done this myself and it works. They really hate the damp.

[Snadger]

Once you spread the compost you will 'spread' their nest and they will either die off or go away!