Ants in the raised bed

[star10]

Hi

We have decided to start growing veg and have built a raised bed and added manure, top soil etc.

When I looked at it today there are ants everywhere.

Has anyone else had this and is there anything that needs to be done about it ??

Anyway advice appreciated please.

[star10]

[Georgie]

Ants in your soil suggests it's too dry.  Give the beds a real good soaking and the ants will almost certainly move on.

G x

[star10]

Okay, will do that.

Was shocked at how many ants there are!!

Thanks for your reply  :)

[allaboutliverpool]

I have had my raised beds for two years with no ants other than the odd one on the Broad Beans last year, obviously milking the blackfly.

I suspect that your ants were there to start with, did you build you beds on previously dormant ground?

Raised beds will be dryer than normal allotment beds, so you need to watch where they go and destroy the nest(s).

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments1_homepage.html

[manicscousers]

hiya, star10, welcome to the site, we have ants, red ones, we just leave them to it, when we move the soil around, hoe-ing etc, they soon go, also they leave lovely, fine soil behind  :)

[star10]

yeah, we did build the bed on dormant ground. We have a large garden, so we just picked the sunniest spot and built the bed.

I've got a little girl, who really wants to get involved with the planting, watering etc, so I don't really want to be putting down any chemicles, if it can be helped.

Think I will have a go at soaking the beds to see if that moves them on first !??

[star10]

Hi Manicscousers

Thanks for your reply.

Think I will have a go at digging and watering, see if this helps.


:)

[star]

Welcome Star 10,

I gave up trying to get rid of ants, but I do get rid of the greenfly and blackfly they farm. No food....they move on a little.

If they are a real problem I have heard borax mixed with sugar kills them off. They feed the queen with it too. It is very toxic to all other wildlife though so great care must be taken to conceal the bait so only ants can get to it.

Hope you enjoy the site ;)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Ants don't just farm aphids, they kill a lot of nasties. I leave them alone.

[Froglegs]

Ants don't just farm aphids, they kill a lot of nasties. I leave them alone.

I leave them alone too,Ants like Wasps do a lot of good getting rid of ya pests

[PurpleHeather]

When I was a kid and my mum found an ants nest in the garden, she did not disturb it.

She put the kettle on and when it boiled she poured it directly on to the ants nest then on the survivors running for their lives.

They didn't like that one bit.

[froglets]

We have red ants at the plot & have to be careful working around them - they bite & some people react badly to them.  Other than hoeing the nests open to expose the eggs, we don't do anything to get rid of them, although I have never seen the birds come for te eggs, perhaps they don't like getting bitten either.

[Tyke]

We got a lot of red ants in our newly made raised beds too - glad to hear that they aren't necessarily a problem. I do remember my dad losing a whole patch of strawberry plants to them though.

I also got hundreds of ants in my garden compost bin - not sure if this is a good thing or not though...

[Robert_Brenchley]

They like compost bins because of the warmth. they never seem to stay in mine that long though.