Compost Piles & Ants
 

My method all this summer has been to pile greens (coffee
grounds / kitchen scraps, mostly) layered with browns
(shredded newspapers and leaves) in a corner of my back
yard. I live WAY out in the country, so aesthetics are not
a problem.

My plan was to take this lovely stuff and pile it on my
lasagna-gardened flower beds after the first couple of frost.

This a.m., I was out there, shoveling into three 40 gal.
trash cans in preparation, and that stuff is eaten up with
ants. And the ants became furious at the shoveling activity
and bit the hell outta me.

The 3 trash cans are just gonna sit there, 'cause frost is
probably 30 - 45 days away (South Carolina -- Zone 8).

WILL the cold kill the little rat *******s? IF I simply
leave it there until April, will the little biting things be
dead?

To prevent future outbreaks, I plan to fling a few handfuls,
amongst the layers, of ant killer pellets as I build up my
pile again. It makes me sad to introduce chemicals, but it
ain't fun to play in your compost pile if you have to battle
little creatures who hate your guts and are willing to prove
it with every shovel full.

Donna

"Donna deMedicis" wrote in message
link.net...


To prevent future outbreaks, I plan to fling a few handfuls,
amongst the layers, of ant killer pellets as I build up my
pile again. It makes me sad to introduce chemicals, but it
ain't fun to play in your compost pile if you have to battle
little creatures who hate your guts and are willing to prove
it with every shovel full.

Donna

Do you plan to use your poisoned compost in a garden where you grow food?

Doug Kanter wrote:

"Donna deMedicis" wrote in message
link.net...


To prevent future outbreaks, I plan to fling a few handfuls,
amongst the layers, of ant killer pellets as I build up my
pile again. It makes me sad to introduce chemicals, but it
ain't fun to play in your compost pile if you have to battle
little creatures who hate your guts and are willing to prove
it with every shovel full.

Donna


Do you plan to use your poisoned compost in a garden where you grow food?



Nope. Just flowers.

Donna

Janet Baraclough.. wrote:
The message .net
from Donna deMedicis contains
these words:


My plan was to take this lovely stuff and pile it on my
lasagna-gardened flower beds after the first couple of frost.


This a.m., I was out there, shoveling into three 40 gal.
trash cans in preparation, and that stuff is eaten up with
ants. And the ants became furious at the shoveling activity
and bit the hell outta me.


Ants like dry places. All you need do is soak the compost-pile very
thoroughly and they'll move out.

Janet.


Too cool! Easily done and no chemical!

Thanks!

Donna

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 13:35:22 GMT, Donna demotic
wrote:



Doug Kanter wrote:

"Donna deMedicis" wrote in message
link.net...


To prevent future outbreaks, I plan to fling a few handfuls,
amongst the layers, of ant killer pellets as I build up my
pile again. It makes me sad to introduce chemicals, but it
ain't fun to play in your compost pile if you have to battle
little creatures who hate your guts and are willing to prove
it with every shovel full.

Donna


Do you plan to use your poisoned compost in a garden where you grow food?



Nope. Just flowers.

Donna


You're killing off Microarthropods as well!!!!

But heck as long as you only poison flowers.....duh!

"Donna deMedicis" wrote in message
link.net...
My method all this summer has been to pile greens (coffee grounds /
kitchen scraps, mostly) layered with browns (shredded newspapers and
leaves) in a corner of my back yard. I live WAY out in the country, so
aesthetics are not a problem.

My plan was to take this lovely stuff and pile it on my lasagna-gardened
flower beds after the first couple of frost.

This a.m., I was out there, shoveling into three 40 gal. trash cans in
preparation, and that stuff is eaten up with ants. And the ants became
furious at the shoveling activity and bit the hell outta me.

The 3 trash cans are just gonna sit there, 'cause frost is probably 30 -
45 days away (South Carolina -- Zone 8).

WILL the cold kill the little rat *******s? IF I simply leave it there
until April, will the little biting things be dead?

To prevent future outbreaks, I plan to fling a few handfuls, amongst the
layers, of ant killer pellets as I build up my pile again. It makes me
sad to introduce chemicals, but it ain't fun to play in your compost pile
if you have to battle little creatures who hate your guts and are willing
to prove it with every shovel full.

Donna

My compost pile was alive with fire-ants this summer.

I was at my wits end trying to decide what to do. I even sought advice from
this and other news groups. Then I remembered. Every time I knocked over a
fire-ant mound in my yard, the ants abandoned that mound.

I turned my compost pile and the ants left it and set up a new mound
elsewhere on my lawn, which I treated with antrol.(?)

I now turn my compost pile,and soak it down every week or two. Since then
I've not had any further problem with the pile being invaded by fire-ants.

"Hound Dog" wrote:

Seems strange that we are poisoning our lands and waters so terribly, but
yet life expectancy keeps extending every year.

But life expectancy is not quality of life.
* Health costs keep going up. We have more sick people.
* Cancer rates keep going up.
* Diabetes rates keep going up.
* Heart disease keeps affecting more people.
* New diseases are emerging every year.
* New nursing homes are being built each year.
* Medicare expenses are increasing each year.
* More people are being rescued from death by our health care system.

Imagine how long life expectancy would be if we had today's health care
system, today's wide variety of healthy foods, and clean air and clean
water.

We don't own the earth, we just use it a while and pass it on to our
children and grandchildren.

"Hound Dog" wrote in message
...

Well, just keep in mind that everything you put on your lawn ends up
SOMEWHERE. Some of it ends up washed into storm drains, and that may end
up
in your drinking water and/or a nearby lake. In the lake, it ends up in
the
fish that you or someone else (perhaps your kids or grandkids) want to
eat
at some point.

Ever heard of "Chicken Little?"

Seems strange that we are poisoning our lands and waters so terribly, but
yet life expectancy keeps extending every year.

Like I said, there are still people......

What's your personal and scientific opinion regarding dioxin and mercury in
fish? No links, no cut & paste jobs. YOUR opinion.

On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 08:15:04 -0800, "Hound Dog"
wrote:

Ever heard of "Chicken Little?"

Seems strange that we are poisoning our lands and waters so terribly, but
yet life expectancy keeps extending every year.



Ever here of a rectal cranial inversion? Your head COULD be removed
from your arse!

Hound Dog wrote:
Seems strange that we are poisoning our lands and waters so terribly,
but yet life expectancy keeps extending every year.

"Life expectancy" is the average age that a group of people under the
same conditions will live. In other words, no access to potable water
would be factored into the "life expectancy" of the people who have no
access to potable water. The life expectancy for those folks is not
going up.

Life expectancy is not going up for the wildlife exposed to polluted
water, either. In many cases, life expectancy has significantly been
reduced to the point of species extinction.

But if you don't think polluted water is harmful to someone's health, or
if you think that pollution simply doesn't exist, then you are a
delusional idiot. I'd like to invite you to move someplace where the tap
water has been polluted by run-off, and we'll sit by and see how it
affects your life expectancy.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug: Black & Decker Landscaping Tools & Parts:
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blackanddecker

"Stephen M. Henning" wrote in message
...
"Hound Dog" wrote:

Seems strange that we are poisoning our lands and waters so terribly, but
yet life expectancy keeps extending every year.

But life expectancy is not quality of life.

There are more and more people being born and living to old age each year.
Life expectancy and the quality of life have never been higher or better.

* Health costs keep going up. We have more sick people.

We have more people in general plus many people living to an old age
therefore the cost of living in all area keeps going up, not just in health
care.

* Cancer rates keep going up.

Again the population and the age of the population keeps going up by leaps
and bounds. More and more cancers are being prevented and/or treated
successfully and cured.

* Diabetes rates keep going up.

Diet and the lack of exercise are the main causes of most cases of diabete,
at least type II.

* Heart disease keeps affecting more people.

Again most heart diseases are caused by diet and life style. Plus the
population is living to an older age.

* New diseases are emerging every year.

And more diseases are being prevented and cured all the time. Many of these
new diseases are coming from third world countries that use no or very
little chemicals.

* New nursing homes are being built each year.

Because the population is living longer,

* Medicare expenses are increasing each year.

Has nothing to do with the subject.

* More people are being rescued from death by our health care system.

Again, this has nothing to do with the subject at hand.


Imagine how long life expectancy would be if we had today's health care
system, today's wide variety of healthy foods, and clean air and clean
water.

Most of our "healthy foods" are available because of the chemicals used by
farmers.

Want to live a long and healthy life. Eat right, don't smoke and exercise
regularly. At least that is the advice your doctor will give you.


We don't own the earth, we just use it a while and pass it on to our
children and grandchildren.

No, we don't own the earth, but we do live on it much longer than our
ancestors did and we are much healther and better fed than they were.

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"Hound Dog" wrote in message
...

Well, just keep in mind that everything you put on your lawn ends up
SOMEWHERE. Some of it ends up washed into storm drains, and that may
end
up
in your drinking water and/or a nearby lake. In the lake, it ends up in
the
fish that you or someone else (perhaps your kids or grandkids) want to
eat
at some point.

Ever heard of "Chicken Little?"

Seems strange that we are poisoning our lands and waters so terribly, but
yet life expectancy keeps extending every year.

Like I said, there are still people......

What's your personal and scientific opinion regarding dioxin and mercury
in
fish? No links, no cut & paste jobs. YOUR opinion.

Where did you get your degree in science? The same place you got your
delusion of grandeur?

YOU would not understand anything I wrote anyway.

"Hound Dog" wrote in message
...


Most of our "healthy foods" are available because of the chemicals used by
farmers.

Actually, farmers in this country are using less chemicals than 20 years
ago. Cost is the main reason, as well as their ability to grow varieties
which don't require as much treatment.

By the way, before this discussion takes a detour, let's define "chemicals",
since it was me who started this mess. I'm talking about pesticides &
herbicides, not chemical fertilizers.

Now: This past summer, I heard an NPR news story about doctors investigating
a particular type of cancer. If I recall, it was pancreatic, although it
might've been prostate. Doesn't matter. Anyway, the doctor said they were
initially curious as to why Japan had such a low rate of this disease. They
did the usual studies and almost settled on genetics as the answer, until
they looked at a large group of Japanese-Americans, factored in (or out)
diet as much as possible, and found that after living here for a certain
period of time, this group had the disease as often as the population as a
whole. The theory: Once someone lives in our fishbowl, they end up with the
same problems.

The chemical companies like to point out that because the environment is
such a complex system, it's extremely difficult to prove a connection
between a pesticide and the diseases it may cause. They're right. But, by
making that statement, they are completely nullifying *all* the so-called
research they used to point at (beginning in the 1960s) which supposedly
proved that certain products were safe.

In fact, without a valid test population of HUMANS, in a study conducted in
the same way as those done for new drugs, you will never see proof of the
safety of any agricultural/garden chemicals. Therefore, they only sane
course is to use little or none.

"hippy gardener" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 08:15:04 -0800, "Hound Dog"
wrote:

Ever heard of "Chicken Little?"

Seems strange that we are poisoning our lands and waters so terribly, but
yet life expectancy keeps extending every year.



Ever here of a rectal cranial inversion? Your head COULD be removed
from your arse!

Well no, I have not heard of a "rectal cranial inversions", but I have
heard of dumb asses, like you.

"Hound Dog" wrote in message
...

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"Hound Dog" wrote in message
...

Well, just keep in mind that everything you put on your lawn ends up
SOMEWHERE. Some of it ends up washed into storm drains, and that may
end
up
in your drinking water and/or a nearby lake. In the lake, it ends up
in
the
fish that you or someone else (perhaps your kids or grandkids) want
to
eat
at some point.

Ever heard of "Chicken Little?"

Seems strange that we are poisoning our lands and waters so terribly,
but
yet life expectancy keeps extending every year.

Like I said, there are still people......

What's your personal and scientific opinion regarding dioxin and mercury
in
fish? No links, no cut & paste jobs. YOUR opinion.

Where did you get your degree in science? The same place you got your
delusion of grandeur?

YOU would not understand anything I wrote anyway.



OK. You're busy. You can write it up later.

Like it or not, we're not talking about junk science here. It's old news.
PCBs & dioxin are nasty compounds that don't belong in our drinking water.
http://www.clearwater.org/news/pcbhealth.html

Too late, though:
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/d...healthadv.html