Compost beasties

Yut_Man

I wish I could do something with my ants.

Lotus-eater

TheMoneySpider wrote: »

Well what does it actually add, amonia I am guessing...does that speed it all up. Am thinking of the poor little worms in there

It adds nitrogen to get your heap going, your poor worms will be fine

There are other ways to add nitrogen if you are squeamish, lawn mowings, nettles etc.

Angel_Jenny

I have an ant nest in my compost bin - not a big fan of creepy crawlies!

katholicos

There is a massive ants nest in one of my compost bins at present, and hundreds if not thousands of eggs which they are protecting too. Generally, if i want to evict them i pour water over them, they tend not to like that, but they are getting a bit more bolshoi these days and seem to return before too long. I suppose that at least they are turning the compost with all their milling around, so that is a bonus.

TheMoneySpider

I have had ants in there a few years back and one of those round ant-bait things killed off the next. I would leave them though, my bin is way away from my house and generally they die off in the winter so during compost-harvesting time they never seem to be around.

My worst ant nest experience was when I was re-potted a small tree and removed the pot, grabbed the contents and found that I actually had an ants nest in my hand. Didn't enjoy that