Garden slab patio - what do you have inbetween the slabs?

stuart45

That's the downside of having a flexible sand joint under the slabs and open or sand/gravel joints. Ants like living under paving slabs. Solid mortar bed and joints helps prevent ants and weeds.

Woolsery

Bendy_House said:

Woolsery said:

Bendy_House said:

Woolsery said:

Bendy_House said:

Weeds and ants should be pretty easy to deal with, I think?

I hope not! Ants that is. I've just made a cocrete slab to go under the pavers our sitting-out bench will go on. It  was going to be on 3 big pavers bedded in sand till I discovered ant nests under each one. Then I recalled a thread here where someone complained about being bitten by ants every time they sat outside on the patio.....Hence all the work!

I meant 'deal with' as in eradicate, not cope with :-)

But you still haven't said how one eradicates them.  They just come back. Not the same lot obviously!

I, er, would use, um...

Aren't there decent killers available? Powders and gels? 

Yes I expect there are, but we're on light soil here and face south, so I think it would be a constant battle. I believe the solid base will be worth the extra hassle.

Grenage

What on earth is people's issue with ants? Our patio and garden is teeming with them, but they must be the most harmless and least bothersome creatures.

stuart45

They nick all your sugar.

youth_leader

I've never bothered about ants, but do remember my Mother's extremely cruel method of pouring boiling water over them.  Dreadful.

stuart45

I remember one of the kids at primary school frying them with a magnifying glass on a sunny day.

koalakoala

No ants in the North East of Scotland, too cold for them !

Woolsery

Grenage said:

What on earth is people's issue with ants? Our patio and garden is teeming with them, but they must be the most harmless and least bothersome creatures.

Yes, apart from the red ones, or the ones that put aphids on your plants so they can 'milk' them and the ones that get under the connservatory floor,...oh and wood ants that are pretty aggressive, but apart from those......

youth_leader said:

I've never bothered about ants, but do remember my Mother's extremely cruel method of pouring boiling water over them.  Dreadful.

That's why I'd rather remove the possibility of needing to deal with them. They have a right to live too, just not where I don't want them, which is such a teeny-tiny fraction of our land I can't even calculate it.