how to get rid of ants!

Brie

yet again a couple of my large plant pots have ants nests in them.  I started to prep one to put some seedlings in yesterday and uncovered a huge nest in one with hundreds of ants and ant pods (whatever you call them).  

Last year I got a young chap to over turn a stone planter to empty out the soil and I poured in boiling water to get rid of any residual ants.  (yes, cruel I guess).  I didn't know if I could do something similar this time with just pouring boiling water over the soil as the one planter is too heavy for me to up end.  

or what is an alternative?  preferably not too chemical due to the number of birds/foxes/cats in the vicinity.

Farway

You could use boiling water, but you'd need a lot

Or try one of the ant bait traps, where you put a few drops onto a flat, non-porous, thing and the ants take the poison back to the nest & kill them off

You can hide the poison trap from animals using something like a broken plant pot, or just one on it's side

One well known & readily available is Nippon

Just search using 

ant killer outdoor uk

twopenny

Raise the pots on pot feet.
Or cheaper, stones, block pavers or whatever. Even a small gap and the ants won't nest there.
Also making sure the pots are regularly watered and it goes at least 2/3 down will keep them out.

I use the hard ant traps and once bought I use a tube of Nippon liquid (available from a well known online retailer) to refill. It's better than the original stuff. I've had the same traps for several years.

  A neighbour used to put them, or other stuff, under a small upturned clay pot just raise on one side with a stone so the wildlife didn't get at it but it wasn't as effective as the traps.

We're over run where I live. Around July the birds start eating them and then they grow wings and all fly on 2  humid nights and it's not so much of a problem.
When you see them grow wings the next thing is you'll notice seagulls circling for a day or two waiting for their feast.

Brie

twopenny said:

Raise the pots on pot feet.
Or cheaper, stones, block pavers or whatever. Even a small gap and the ants won't nest there.
Also making sure the pots are regularly watered and it goes at least 2/3 down will keep them out.

I use the hard ant traps and once bought I use a tube of Nippon liquid (available from a well known online retailer) to refill. It's better than the original stuff. I've had the same traps for several years.

  A neighbour used to put them, or other stuff, under a small upturned clay pot just raise on one side with a stone so the wildlife didn't get at it but it wasn't as effective as the traps.

We're over run where I live. Around July the birds start eating them and then they grow wings and all fly on 2  humid nights and it's not so much of a problem.
When you see them grow wings the next thing is you'll notice seagulls circling for a day or two waiting for their feast.

obviously poison should kill them but what about the ones that don't die?  I don't want to poison the birds.

will see about raising the pots up a bit

twopenny

This is how it works 
https://www.pestid.co.uk/blog/preventing-ant-infestation-uk-info/
I've loads of birds in the garden and roaming cats around. This doesn't seem to affect them.
 Because the ants will feed in a covered place and return with the 'food,,'