Ants - unwanted visitors

Signs - Ants all over the place.

Damage - Contrary to popular belief ants do little or no direct damage to your garden plants. They don't eat leaves (apart from leaf cutter ants in tropical climates - and even then they farm the fungi that grow on the leaves - a far more noble endeavour). They don't lay eggs in trees either - they're much better parents than to leave the eggs laying around.

Ants are nuisance rather than a serious pest. The worst they actually do to your plants is to farm aphids for the stick sugary honeydew that the aphids secrete. To this end they protect the aphids on plants from predators that might attack the aphids and pick them up and carry them to new pastures treating them like particularly stupid cows. The discarded honeydew can make your car sticky and also allow fungus to take hold on plants as it gives the leaves a nice sugary coating to get the spores started.

Ants build nests which in the lawn can interfere with mowing (but not if you mow as regularly as you should - see the ants as a natural clock) in containers they can loosen the compost and cause it to fall out of the bottom. Nests can also build up around low growing plants, using the foliage like scaffolding, which can virtually bury the plant and look unsightly.

Ants also generate a lot of distaste, particularly as they troop across your kitchen work surfaces looking for the sugar bowl.

- in case anyone is wondering, no they don't all contribute to one giant brain - except in 1950's science fiction films.

Flying ants - a wonder of nature, I never understand why people get worked up about these. It's the next generation of ants being distributed away from the nest. The idea is that they leave, that's what they want to do. If it really upsets you, go inside and watch a DVD instead and get a take-away. Next time you look it'll be fine.

Now when I lived in Mombasa and the flying ants left the nest they would fill a room like nothing else you've ever seen. We'd leave a light on in one room (they flew at dusk) and close the other doors. After a while I'd go in and flick the big ones onto the floor where the dogs would gobble them up as a special treat. Once they'd had their fill, we'd turn the light off, close the windows and spray with the appropriately named and worryingly effective "Doom". Then after 10 minutes, go in and sweep them all up. The locals would cover the nests in net-curtains to catch them as they left and then fry them as a delicacy.

Ants in the compost heap - a common occurrence, stop being a wuss. Distribute the compost heap in the normal way and the ants will disperse and probably be eaten by the birds - particularly the queens or flying ants which are particularly juicy and will reward you with birdsong.

Treatment -

I know many people won't like to hear this, but the best and most successful approach is to leave most of the nests in your garden alone, and just to deal with those nests that are problems - like those ants that enter the house on sugar raids, or the ones that wait for you to sit on the grass and then bite your bum.

Ants are a natural part of the landscape, and the best way of eliminating new queens flying in from elsewhere are the ants in the nests that are already in your garden - they kill and eat them on landing. Eliminate the ants completely and you'll end up with more than ever in the near future until they settle down to a balanced equilibrium as they probably are at the moment.

Back to those troublesome nests then, the approaches are:

Traditional organic remedies

   Boiling water, my mother's preferred treatment. The trick is to get the queen who is often deep underground or protected, so digging  away at the nest a little will allow the water to get down deep and do its work. As much as possible as quickly as possible will be more effective, so have two kettles or a follow-up pan from the stove. Putting an upside down large terracotta plant pot over the nest and pouring the water through the drainage hole (a funnel will help here) can keep it in a smaller area. When the ants crawl into the pot, turn it the right way up and let hem have it with more water.

   Ants don't like Eucalyptus oil, so a spray of this may deter them from your favoured areas.

   Preventing access. Sounds obvious, but ants in the house tend not to come in through the door, they gain access through cracks and splits in brick and cement in the main. Trace where they are coming from, get the filler out and you may well solve the problem.

Chemical remedies

   Ant traps based on Borax are the most effective. These take the form of small covered plastic boxes around 3-4" in diameter with a tube of poison gel that you put in the middle of the plastic trap and replace the lid. The trap then goes on the route of one of the ant runs. The advantage is that you don't need to hunt out the nest, the ants do the job for you.

I've always had mixed feelings about these as it seems too much like dirty tricks. The forager ants find the poison, think it's food and take it back to the nest where they feed it to all the other ants including the queen when it then poisons them. Effective, but not immediate, may take a week or two to work.

   Dust of various kinds. Reasonably effective, but only gets the troops on the ground, doesn't stop HQ from sending more.

   If ants are farming aphids on your plants with far too much success (winning "young farmer of the year award" for instance) then the best approach is to kill off their herd of aphids

Biological control

   Anteaters

Ant Lore

   Eating ant eggs with honey is a traditional cure for the love-lorn, not totally guaranteed to raise the spirits though.

   It is very lucky to find an ants nest near an entrance to your property as they are a sign that prosperity and financial success are on their way.

   Many countries see ants on the move as an omen of bad weather, stepping on any ants means that heavy rain will follow.

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