g'day john,

i don't find any ant undesirable in the garden it is only those times
they bring in aphids etc.,. they have hteir part to play in recycling
in the garden eg.,. when we last lived in the 'burbs we would do the
torch safari and squish those snails and the ants would clean up the
dead critters. even termites in the garden are a benefit.

not sure about ants just try to live with them, but up in the bush we
had a lot of what i know as meat ants a fairly large ant, that created
food trails through the grass dunno how they did it? but they had
clear walkways to regular food sources, and they collected lots of
fallen bugs or whatever they could find but they still
harvested/farmed scale instect. so i would be guessing that most ants
will like sweets after the main meal huh chuckle?

an amazing ant to watch they where, if it was going to rain heavily
their food collecting activity was dramatically escalated and they
where far less tollerant of you getting in their road then the only
time i ahve ever been bitten by them, if the night was going to be
cold they would have the dark coloured stones on top of their nest to
gather heat so they could take them down and warm whatever part of the
nest they needed warming, then the opposite in summer they had the
lighter stones on top.

i've seen before when the ants are hurredly removing the aphids down
to the roots of the roses you can count on it raining heavily.



On Sat, 02 Sep 2006 11:56:48 GMT, John Savage
wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com