Red ants invading

[Westcountrycat]

Hello,

Anyone found a solution to red ants ? I have had them for a few years, trying to keep on top of them, usual stuff for black ants doesn't touch them so been digging them out, soaking them out etc but they are so resilient they just keep coming back

Thanks

 

[Beverly]

Oh, i have had experience with red ants, leaf-cutter ants, argentine ants, and a dozen more. I have had success using DE (diatomacious earth) against ants coming from the street and over the walls to my garden, and a few nesting as well. This entirely organic and food grade DE is mixed up to be a beverage for humans (not this human) who drink it. I only mention this if you are fussy about what you use to keep your garden healthy.

In addition, i use a spray of soapy water with a few drops of clove and cinnamon oils, not to be used on the plants but to be used on the walls where they enter the garden. After a few years, i feel that i have the problem under control, which doesn't mean there are no ants but does mean there are fewer ants and less problems.

At dirtdoctor.com there are some good recipes for killing ants in the garden, especially killing off the nests, with video instructions that i have found very helpful. You want your ants to know that your garden is hostile territory without having to use harmful chemicals and toxins. It takes some perseverance, but you will eventually have fewer and fewer ants. Ants are smart and they learn not to return to hostile territory. I believe you will find the dirtdoctor very helpful.

 

[Westcountrycat]

Thanks, the DE sounds interesting, do you sprinkle it on the nests?

 

[Beverly]

I have never treated a nest with DE (that i know of). For killing off a nest you would use dirtdoctor's recipe. I do not sprinkle DE, rather i "dump" it. DE deteriorates the outer skeletons of ants and beetles. It is not effective if it gets wet, but it is a beneficial soil amendment so if it does get wet you can just work the wet DE into the soil. The idea is to get the ants covered with it, so i put it at the base of the plants they are visiting so that the ants have to walk through it to get to the trunk or stem of the plant. It takes a few days for the ants to become immobilized (i.e. dead). What i don't know is if the ants in the nest will allow the DE covered ants inside the nest. It is possible that they are not allowed inside or possibly they are put into a quarantined area. The leaf-cutter ants (which you do not have in the UK) that are the most destructive make shallow nests between the wall and the soil, so i dump DE on those areas where i find activity. Of course, if you have a deep nest and put DE around the entry the ants will need to walk through it to do their work, so it might be somewhat effective although i believe ants always have escape routes for the nests so i suppose they could all leave safely and move someplace else which doesn't help you out much. dirtdoctor's method will kill off the nest and if i had nests, that is what i would use.

 

[zigs]

In the summer, if you put a clay flowerpot upside down over the nest they'll move up into it as the sun warms it up.

Then you slide a shovel under it and move the whole nest to a neighbour you don't like

 

[Beverly]

In the summer, if you put a clay flowerpot upside down

Wow, that's a new one on me. Hopefully, the ones left behind to guard the queen are scurrying her out the back door to relocate. Don't the removed ants return looking for their nest? And when you shovel them up, don't they all come running out the top of the bottom hole in the pot to see what's going on and then run away?

 

[zigs]

They'll stay to guard the queen so won't come back. They will go on the defensive so lets hope the neighbour you hate don't live too far away

Uncovered a hill under some plastic mulch a few years back, as soon as they were exposed they went into attack mode and killed every last slug and snail under there

 

[Beverly]

They'll stay to guard the queen

Do you mean that the queen will be in the flower pot too?

It just occurred to me how bizarre that sentence would be taken out of the context of this thread

 

[zigs]

Yep, they'll move the nest to get the free heating, every summer they build up to my caravan tow hitch as it's got a metal lock on it thats in the sun all day

Be good on a T shirt

 

[roadrunner]

Curious of what species of ant is being discussed and if they're introduced or native? Is it one of these -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ants_of_Great_Britain

Here in Florida we an invasive fire ant, but I've found a way to keep them out of my yard -- heavy mulch, they hate it. They like dry sandy soil in a very sunny location; they stay out of my yard.

 

[zigs]

Think my ones are these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmica_rubra

Remember sitting on a nest of them when we had an outdoor reading session at school

 

[roadrunner]

Think my ones are these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmica_rubra

Remember sitting on a nest of them when we had an outdoor reading session at school View attachment 16958

That sounds like a bad ass ant and after reading about it I see we have a few established colonies here in New England.

However, what caught my attention was the last sentence of your link; it sounded very familiar, then I went looking and now I remember reading articles about the connection between butterflies and ants in your part of the world and how critical to bringing back ants to allow the recovery of various butterflies that were going extinct (and many thought it was from climate change).

One example is that of the Large Blue Butterfly, which was pronounced extinct back in 1979 http://www.ceh.ac.uk/large-blue-butterfly

We may not like the ants, but the butterflies do love them

 

[zigs]

I've seen a wildlife film of the catterpillars doing that

Ants help spread Violet seeds too

 

[Beverly]

There are organic recipes and instructions for killing a red ant hill at dirtdoctor.com . Welcome to the forums Also read the comments by zigs above about using an upside down flower pot.

 

[Rajesh Sethi]

Ants are not that bad, you can tame them, just put sugar and food where you want them to shift.

My place ants look for cooler place (wet place).