Ants in my plot!!

[pugsie]

I have recently started a raised bed. I garden on clay so purchased some organic soil suitable for growing veggies. I covered the beds with black poly to warm them ( been reading on the forum!!). Popped out today as its warm to check the beautiful soil prior to planting some salads at the weekend. When I lifted the poly back there were loads of ants, checked in various places and they appear to be wide spread. Will they affect the crops I am going to plant? Should I just leave them ? If I need to get rid of them, how?

[geoff]

You could rake in some ant killing powder; they tend not to harm plants, they're more a nuisance than harmful

My uncle Jim was a keen gardener, here's his ant - clearing technique

Stroll around the garden on a sunny day, filling your pipe as you do so, and identify any ants' nests
Pour a canful of petrol, say just over half a pint, onto the nest
Light your pipe
Drop the lighted match onto the nest

[nerobot]

Just out of interest, do ants eat other pests?

Steven

[JimmerG]

I could be talking out of my hat here - but I think ants actually harvest greenfly - that's to say they nurture and encourage them as ants live off either the goo that green fly emits, or they 'farm' the greenfly.
All I know is that when my roses gcovered in greenfly - they also get covered in ants... both in large quantities that don't go away unless treated.

I'n SURE someone here can clarify!

[pdblake]

I find a kettle of boiling water poured into the nest gets rid of them pretty quick.

[Printemps]

Makes you want to take up smoking a pipe! I hate the pesky things especially like now as they are in my kitchen and my bedroom!! Last night my only weaponry to hand was a can of hair lacquer and the vacuum cleaner - needless to say they're back again today. This afternoon's mission is to find something that will put paid to the buggers! Any other suggestions that's proved successful for you?

[walshie]

Ants do indeed harvest all aphids, greenfly and blackfly - you will find them harvesting the aphids on broadbeans escpecially. They actually protect the aphids from preditors such as lady birds. I have a nettle patch on my plot which attracts nettle fly which lady birds love and ants dont. this is good as i then get a lot of lady birds in my plot which can over come the ants and eat more of the aphids. I dont care much for chemicals in my plot as i dont really want that on my veg, so get rid of ant food and you get rid of ants.

i have a combination of black and red ants. I dont mind the black ants too much but the reds ones are nasty as they really bite and can be annoying while you are weeding and they crawl all over you and nip you.

[Eyren]

Ants also secrete formic acid which can kill plants if it accumulates. I would second the boiling water idea - it's non-toxic, and even if it doesn't kill them, it might encourage them to move their nest elsewhere!

[-pat m]

All very interesting to me I got them on my broad beans and studied them - most of the time they walk around the other black /green fly on the plants and clearly seem to like the sweetness from the flowers. Having said all that I once got maggots in my wormery I didn’t have the forum in those days so made a ham fisted decision to let the fight it out and to my delight the worms won! So I will be going for the live and let live (as long as they don’t become too much of a problem or I will set my chickens on them and that one will be no contest!) approach

Regards

Pat
Later on flying ants WILL get the hot water treatment

[Stacey Steve]

I get nests on my plots but find if I turn the nest over with a fork, then retreat for a cigarette and cuppa, my friendly robin is down like a shot and has a good clear up for me.

[Pickle]

Makes you want to take up smoking a pipe! I hate the pesky things especially like now as they are in my kitchen and my bedroom!! Last night my only weaponry to hand was a can of hair lacquer and the vacuum cleaner - needless to say they're back again today. This afternoon's mission is to find something that will put paid to the buggers! Any other suggestions that's proved successful for you?

I'm pretty certain that ants hate peppermint oil. If you can find where they are getting in or even better the entrance to their nest a few drops of peppermint oil should help to get rid of them. Will give your kitchen a nice minty smell too

[selfraising]

I could be talking out of my hat here - but I think ants actually harvest greenfly - that's to say they nurture and encourage them as ants live off either the goo that green fly emits, or they 'farm' the greenfly.
All I know is that when my roses gcovered in greenfly - they also get covered in ants... both in large quantities that don't go away unless treated.

I'n SURE someone here can clarify!

I think they do the same with blackfly as well. They give them a piggy back ride up broad beans!

[Victoria26]

They hate the smell of cinnamon too. I've crushed up loads and threw it all over my broadies. but I'll be keeping an eye on them considering i have millions of them in my plot!!

Polenta and semolina kill them too. They take it back to the nest, feed it to the queen and it kills her cuz they explode - nice!!

[walshie]

If you are going to pour boiling water on them then team this up with a little fairy washing up liquid. those that are not killed by the boiling water will drown. the reason for the fairy liquid is that ant are able to walk on top of the water due to the suface tension, detergent breaks the suface tension and they drown.

This is also good for those who like their green lawns, when the ground is hard and dry and you put water on the water will form balls and then evaporate but if you add detergent to break the surface tension the water will soak into the ground and water your grass.

detergent is also biological so will not harm your plants/soil.

[sallym]

I'm sure I read somewhere that you can get a Nematode "treatment" for ants, the same as you can for slugs.