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Ants
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 |
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