Forum home› The potting shed
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Ants and Compost

Ferdinand2000Ferdinand2000 Posts: 537
in The potting shed
Just thinking about getting started this year, at least a month earlier than last year :-)

I've uncovered my compost bins, done last summer and autumn.

The big insulated bin has gone own by about a third, and shows signs of half a cubic m of excellent compost. The dalek needs a lot longer.

My question is whether a quantity of ants in my compost bin are something to worry about.

Thanks

Ferdinand
“Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    They indicate it's too dry in there.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • garyd52garyd52 Posts: 51
    They are not a problem as such but are a pain when you want to empty a ready bin , it's easy to get them to move on though as all you need to do is give the bin a good stir with a fork 3 or 4 times over the course of a week and they'll get the message and go as they will regard the bin as an unsafe place to brood their eggs .I have to do it most years and it always works .
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    The trouble comes when they move their nesting habit to pots of plants - makes it even harder to get the compost good and damp when watering - or they move underground and make their nests beneath the roots of your plants which then find their roots dangling in thin air in their tunnel and unable to take up moisture or nutrients.   It can severely affect growth.

    Plus which, they nip if you get them caught in your socks, trousers, gloves.   Not pleasant.   You can encourage them not to set up home by making sure your compost is kept damp, your pots are in saucers and, if yo do find them in the borders, watering with a solution made form 15l of water into which you've added a small bottle of essential oil of cloves form a pharmacy or health shop.   They hate the smell but it won't harm them.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Ferdinand2000Ferdinand2000 Posts: 537
    Thanks all.

    I'll stir with a fork.

    The plan is probably for some compost to be used, the rest to go into a wheeliebin for later use, and to start again.
    “Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”
  • SporophyteBoySporophyteBoy Posts: 118
    I never cover my compost heaps - and they are heaps rather than bins or anything with sides - hence air can get at 5 of the 6 surfaces and rain any two at at a time. They get very hot when starting and cook any living thing, as time goes on, they cool down and buglife invades - plenty of woodlice, never seen any ants.
    Some scientific work has been done on ant's response to scent because the elephant in the room is - flowers have nectar yet you rarely see an ant nicking it. Turns out that most Formic ants at least are attracted by the nectar but repelled by a whole raft of flower scents so there's a twin prong to evolution.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Ants make nests in my very soggy compost bin - they just make an ornate cave system which ventilates it out. Wood lice seem happy in their too. So I'm not convinced their presence is to do with things being very dry. It's just a good environment for them both. Disturbance is likely to help move them on. Open things out so they can move all the eggs to somewhere new and leave them for a few days.

    My problem is that one of my bins is infested with slugs of all kind. I feel like I am carefully nurturing a huge slug farm and then spreading their eggs all over the garden in the finished compost. :s
Sign In or Register to comment.