Ants in Compost

antonia1

Put my hand in my bag of compost last night and came out with a handfull of ants! I think they may have begun making a nest in my compost. I have put out some ant poison that will (hopefully) get rid of them, but what can I do with the compost? I really don't want to throw it away because is was a new 125l bag (only opened two days ago), but I will get more if it is likely to be ruined.

morg_monster

I wouldn't think the ants would ruin the compost, the ant poison might though - did you use a bait station or spray or powder?
If you used a bait station, so the compost is "uncontaminated", even once the adults have mostly died/disappeared I would just leave it a bit to see if there are more eggs to be hatched before using it. If there are, they should be killed by the bait station as well once they are moving about.
Another idea would be to lay a groundsheet or tarp (or a few old compost bags split and laid out) out in the garden on a dry day, spread the compost over it and stick a couple of bait stations around it. that should make it much less inviting to ants so they should all leave pretty sharpish. Then it should be fine to use. I seem to have ants on quite a few of my plants - they are eating greenfly and blackfly rather than the plants themselves.

good luck!

lolarentt

Can't be that well established in so short a time. Empty it out onto something and see what's going on. You should be able to get rid of them if you spread the compost around a bit, they'll want somewhere deep and dark to nest.

antonia1

Thanks guys!

I don't object to ants in the garden, I just don't like them making a nest in my compost. They may have just been looking for somewhere nice to build a nest. I'm a bit sqeamish about creepy crawlies generally tho, so I might have to get my OH to sort it out for me! I just bought some rubble sacks, so we can lay them on the ground and spread the compost around.

This gardening stuff was much easier when everything was on windowsills!

soul619

i have ant in my compost and greenhouse i also have bait traps about but they dont seem towork! knowing there after the greenfly makes me feel a little better tho

Farway

soul619 wrote: »

i have ant in my compost and greenhouse i also have bait traps about but they dont seem towork! knowing there after the greenfly makes me feel a little better tho

False sense of security I'm afraid, the ants do not eat the greenfly, they milk them, and move them from plant to plant, like a farmer does with the cows, moving from field to field

So the ants are helping to spread the greenflies, but it is all nature and providing the greenfly do not become too big a problem, live & let live

soul619

theres not loads there more bloody flies goin in there than anything and i just cant keep em out

ddoris

Wet your compost -the ants will move on.

LJM

thankyou for that i have just done this as i noticed alot of ants in mine also