On 01/08/2014 08:05, Jim Chisholm wrote:
On 01/08/2014 00:11, Jim S wrote:
On Thu, 31 Jul 2014 22:21:21 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:

On Thu, 31 Jul 2014 21:27:53 +0100, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

Whilst pulling weeds today, I pull up a root and exposed a
large black ants nest,( and the damned things got all over
me!). As there were a lot of small winged ants there, my
immediate instinct was to dig out the ant powder fom the shed,
but....

I suddenly wondered: Do ants do good or harm in the garden,? Do
we need them? Are the flying horrors best off despatched?

I realise that poor ignorant man that I am, I don't know!


Ants can be a damn nuisance. In a lawn, they raise humps that get
scalped by the mower. They undermine paving slabs, which then become
uneven and a trip-hazard, and they can make their nests in plant
roots, causing the plants to die. I notice the last when I try and
establish hedge plants along the tops of Cornish walls/hedges. Plants
won't thrive and usually die if there's a nest under the roots. But
ants are everywhere, and I don't usually worry about them except where
they become a nuisance as I've described.

Most of the time they don't bother me, but if they start coming indoors I
use those 'Antstop' box thingies along their route. They are supposed to
take their contents home to mummy and pop their clogs. I put them under a
stone/tile/slate to keep the rain out and they last all summer.

I have trouble with then in my potato patch. I suspect it can cause
distortion of the potatoes?

Jim




I'm surprised you even have a 'potato patch'. Potatoes need to be part
of a crop rotation scheme to avoid build-up of disease. Further,
potatoes like lots of water as they develop - ants do not. Water your
potatoes well and the ants should disappear.

--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay