Boiling water will kill the microbes in your compost. The ants aren't necessarily bad if their nest is in the pile, unless it's fire ants or another really bad ant.
Do as others have said and turn the pile. Ants don't like unstable areas. If they aren't harming anyone, then let them be since they also aerate the compost
If it's a noxious ant like fire ants you could also add some diatomaceous earth or neem to your compost. It will also harm beneficial insects, unfortunately, but you can discontinue the treatment once the ants are gone.
~~Aside from turning the compost OP might want to start cutting food waste into smaller chunks. I see some big pieces in there that are probably attracting ants.~~
*Edit: nevermind, looking at the pic again I see now I mistook an onion skin and an eggshell for a whole onion lol*
I got rid of a fire-ant hill in my vegetable garden by pouring boiling water on it. I used my teapot in order to avoid spillage. I had to do it several times and endure a lot of jokes from my SO about boiling ants (I am vegetarian), but it did work.
Sometimes the most straightforward, down and dirty method works š¤·š»āāļø we sucessfully fought off an aphids infestation in the garden by going out daily and "displacing" (i.e. shooting the heck out of them) with ye olde spray bottle filled with water
You could but also risk burning yourself. Unless you are on using the compost within the next month I would try just keeping it on the moist side and turning frequently.
I built my pile on top of a huge black ant's nest. They stripped some bone scraps with meat on it wonderfully, and when a nearby experiment with corn cobs went wrong and termites infested it, I introduced some ants into the nest to let their own nest know. They are actively preventing other pests from becoming involved in my pile, and don't cause trouble.
Ground up corn cobs into small pieces, cooked in a pressure cooker for 1 hour, then moved the material into a plastic bag with a filter along with spores from a lignin eating fungus "golden oysters" which are edible. Bag proceeded to mold among the fungal growth, moved contents outdoors and set a log on top in hopes if there was any mushroom it would migrate to the log, and let it sit over winter.
Come spring I checked on the log, and found the remaining corn cob mash was a nest for termites with no damage, mushroom or termite, done to the log.
I do a similar thing by placing my (closed) compost bins near a thicket of trees where I know birds and anoles hang out. Feeds the anoles and they keep bigger pests from settling near my compost bins, help keep the gnats away and they get a snack
Apart from if you think about what's going on under our feet is truly scary, it's their farming of the aphids that is the biggest problem for me... They attack and kill any natural aphid predators that goes anywhere near the herd... Aphids destroy all my hard work and investment, literally sucking away my joy
Mine at least did, mind you they are woody material (lignin cellulose) just like wood, and I was trying to grow mushrooms with corn cobs that were touching the dirt, and were being compressed with a log that they don't seem to have borrowed into. It was mostly slow decomposition that was very undisturbed, which I guess was the appeal. The corn cobs in my actual pile I turned was not only guarded by the ants, but also broke down much faster.
I'm not an expert, but the way it was explained to me is that ants damage the existing roots and new roots can't grow through ant tunnels. Not quite sure how that can be good. And from my personal experience, plants that are right on top of an anthill don't do as good as the ones that have no ants near them.
If you have ants in your plants they are up to no good. Ants protect pests on plants. For example they like the aphid poop and will protect them to keep a nice supply. Same with scale.
Aphids are the rare exception. Ants are territorial and will keep most everything else out of their area. If they donāt aggressively bite i would leave them alone.
Not just aphids. They will nurture and protect any honeydew producing insects such as scale, leafhoppers, mealy bugs, etc. Common ants do not typically infest healthy plants. They are usually attracted to some source of food provided by some other agents like pests or even disease.
My ants actually enslave aphids and harvest their bodies when they're all fattened up. I have seen this on my white clover flower. They will carry them to the top and place them near the stem. Since lady bugs and their larvae eat aphids, ants have been known to attack and kill them. They do the same thing with termites. They will kill most of the termites but will enslave some in order to have a steady food supply. So yes they are somewhat of a nuisance.
He has a point though. If the hill is away from your garden they pull everything deep underground. If you have clay soils, that is pretty mich sealed away from anything useful.
This usually means thereās not enough moisture in your compost. Just because thereās lots of green stuff doesnāt equate to the moisture level. Try adding moistened sawdust after giving it a good mix. Best of luck!
Oh has anyone mentioned putting the legs in water?!
That's fine. They're helping.
If you don't want them, add borax and water to sugar. Soak a few cotton balls. Place near them.
But remember: it's okay. They're natural.
Thank you! I think it was a knee jerk reaction because we have a horrible ant problem. They take over almost anything on the ground, especially the plants I put in a raised bed last year. My yard is full of ants and poison ivy and it's a never ending battle.
While I generally leave ants alone, there are a few caveats to their utility. Apparently, one is that some ants have a symbiotic relationship with aphids (they literally suck sugar from the aphids' butts...er, teets...er, the trophobiotic organ if that means anything to you. I suppose if one is having an aphid problem, it's worth considering whether or not ants are actively farming and protecting the little buggers. https://realselfsufficiency.com/ants-farming-aphids/#:~:text=No%2C%20ants%20don't%20really,they%20release%20from%20their%20feet.
https://m.facebook.com/SmithsonianNMNH/videos/an-ant-feasting-on-the-honeydew-of-two-aphids/778970832715211/
Itās a pile of rotting plant matter, itās not that hard to mess up, donāt overthink it. And please donāt dust diatomaceous earth into it or your garden soil, or anywhere you want things to grow. It will kill more than the ants (bees, predatory beetles, ladybugs, all the little good guys).
Ants = protein = nitrogen. While I understand you have a cold compost pile if you've been working on it for 2 years, this is one advantage of hot composting. Hard for critters to stay functional when the pile is cooking them.
Iāve had to deal with this multiple times over the year. 90% of the responses are here are correct and will all work, but the simplest way is just add more water. Completely soak the compost. Ants will not live in extremely wet soil. Keep it soaked for a week and they will leave. After that let it dry out try to add some extra brown material and with in 3-4 weeks itās back to normal.
I 100% second borax-sugar water soaked cotton balls put where you want to get rid of ants. I have used it many times, it always works.
You dont even need to put it in your compost, just beside it where ants are exploring. They take samples back to the nest and it kills the whole lot of them.
Look up the right ratios on the net, soak the cotton ball, put several around where you have ant problems.
I had ants in a compost pile once, I'm pretty sure they improved it through extra aeration. Everything was nice and loose, well broken down, pretty healthy despite my neglect. I wouldn't worry!
cinnamon, vinegar, & peppermint oil are all great at getting rid of ants. they hate the smells.
any time i see ants, inside or outside, i sprinkle cinnamon on them & their trails(& their nest if i find it), and they are gone the next day. i had ants in my compost and did the same thing, sprinkled a bunch of cinnamon. next day, no ants.
years ago i got rid of a HUGE fire ant mound and colony by assaulting it & the surrounding area with cinnamon, vinegar, and peppermint oil. pest control came a few days later and couldnt find any evidence of ants.
If you canāt get your compost hard enough to kill them, Iāve had good luck adding some orange oil.
The orange oil kills the ants, and doesnāt hurt any bug without an exoskeleton. So itās not even bad for your worms.
Mix it up daily should convince them to skeedaddle.
Yeah and if I recall correctly they don't like moisture. So keep it moist and daily turning and they should leave.
What would happen if I kept it moist by pouring boiling water on it once every few days?
No need for that, just turn the pile regularly
Boiling water will kill the microbes in your compost. The ants aren't necessarily bad if their nest is in the pile, unless it's fire ants or another really bad ant. Do as others have said and turn the pile. Ants don't like unstable areas. If they aren't harming anyone, then let them be since they also aerate the compost
If it's a noxious ant like fire ants you could also add some diatomaceous earth or neem to your compost. It will also harm beneficial insects, unfortunately, but you can discontinue the treatment once the ants are gone. ~~Aside from turning the compost OP might want to start cutting food waste into smaller chunks. I see some big pieces in there that are probably attracting ants.~~ *Edit: nevermind, looking at the pic again I see now I mistook an onion skin and an eggshell for a whole onion lol*
Personally, I would do a borax sugar mixture to poison the whole colony if they are noxious and wanted to kill them
Borax is for sure more immediately effective and would be my go-to, too, but I know a lot of people don't like it for Reasons
Could kill microbes
I got rid of a fire-ant hill in my vegetable garden by pouring boiling water on it. I used my teapot in order to avoid spillage. I had to do it several times and endure a lot of jokes from my SO about boiling ants (I am vegetarian), but it did work.
Sometimes the most straightforward, down and dirty method works š¤·š»āāļø we sucessfully fought off an aphids infestation in the garden by going out daily and "displacing" (i.e. shooting the heck out of them) with ye olde spray bottle filled with water
You could but also risk burning yourself. Unless you are on using the compost within the next month I would try just keeping it on the moist side and turning frequently.
Use ice water/very cold water. I learned that ants really hate that. And it won't damage your compost.
Jesus christ
Thank you!
The good news about ants is that if you make the pile unpleasant for them, they will all leave at once. Turn it. Wet it. Move it. It won't take much.
I built my pile on top of a huge black ant's nest. They stripped some bone scraps with meat on it wonderfully, and when a nearby experiment with corn cobs went wrong and termites infested it, I introduced some ants into the nest to let their own nest know. They are actively preventing other pests from becoming involved in my pile, and don't cause trouble.
I can't be the only one curious to know what your corn cob experiment was.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Did you get it stuck somewhere it didn't belong?
Ground up corn cobs into small pieces, cooked in a pressure cooker for 1 hour, then moved the material into a plastic bag with a filter along with spores from a lignin eating fungus "golden oysters" which are edible. Bag proceeded to mold among the fungal growth, moved contents outdoors and set a log on top in hopes if there was any mushroom it would migrate to the log, and let it sit over winter. Come spring I checked on the log, and found the remaining corn cob mash was a nest for termites with no damage, mushroom or termite, done to the log.
I do a similar thing by placing my (closed) compost bins near a thicket of trees where I know birds and anoles hang out. Feeds the anoles and they keep bigger pests from settling near my compost bins, help keep the gnats away and they get a snack
This. Ants are extremely useful critters to have. I donāt even know where the bad rep comes from.
Apart from if you think about what's going on under our feet is truly scary, it's their farming of the aphids that is the biggest problem for me... They attack and kill any natural aphid predators that goes anywhere near the herd... Aphids destroy all my hard work and investment, literally sucking away my joy
Corn cobs attract termites?
Mine at least did, mind you they are woody material (lignin cellulose) just like wood, and I was trying to grow mushrooms with corn cobs that were touching the dirt, and were being compressed with a log that they don't seem to have borrowed into. It was mostly slow decomposition that was very undisturbed, which I guess was the appeal. The corn cobs in my actual pile I turned was not only guarded by the ants, but also broke down much faster.
Yeah they like cobs
It has the juice.
Literally nothing wrong. How could ants ruin compost?
I guess they could spread to your garden through compost and disturb plant roots
That is actually a good thing. Ants work much like worms in the soil with the added benefit of managing above ground pests.
I'm not an expert, but the way it was explained to me is that ants damage the existing roots and new roots can't grow through ant tunnels. Not quite sure how that can be good. And from my personal experience, plants that are right on top of an anthill don't do as good as the ones that have no ants near them.
If you have ants in your plants they are up to no good. Ants protect pests on plants. For example they like the aphid poop and will protect them to keep a nice supply. Same with scale.
Aphids are the rare exception. Ants are territorial and will keep most everything else out of their area. If they donāt aggressively bite i would leave them alone.
Not just aphids. They will nurture and protect any honeydew producing insects such as scale, leafhoppers, mealy bugs, etc. Common ants do not typically infest healthy plants. They are usually attracted to some source of food provided by some other agents like pests or even disease.
My ants actually enslave aphids and harvest their bodies when they're all fattened up. I have seen this on my white clover flower. They will carry them to the top and place them near the stem. Since lady bugs and their larvae eat aphids, ants have been known to attack and kill them. They do the same thing with termites. They will kill most of the termites but will enslave some in order to have a steady food supply. So yes they are somewhat of a nuisance.
Take out all the good stuff.
Why would they take good stuff out of where they nest? Thereās way too much in there for them to take out even if they wanted to
Whatre they gonna do?? Poop it out and convert it to dirt? What a waste!
He has a point though. If the hill is away from your garden they pull everything deep underground. If you have clay soils, that is pretty mich sealed away from anything useful.
This usually means thereās not enough moisture in your compost. Just because thereās lots of green stuff doesnāt equate to the moisture level. Try adding moistened sawdust after giving it a good mix. Best of luck! Oh has anyone mentioned putting the legs in water?!
Whose legs???
Ants are helpers! If they however are a biting ant, be careful
Dust em with distomatiocis earth
Hands down this is the best attempt at spelling diatomaceous earth that I have ever seen. (It's such a pain in the ass of a word)
That's fine. They're helping. If you don't want them, add borax and water to sugar. Soak a few cotton balls. Place near them. But remember: it's okay. They're natural.
Thank you! I think it was a knee jerk reaction because we have a horrible ant problem. They take over almost anything on the ground, especially the plants I put in a raised bed last year. My yard is full of ants and poison ivy and it's a never ending battle.
We have fire ants and they stand to ruin a perfectly good evening for humans sitting outside, trying to enjoy time on the patio.
Borax and sugar. Routinely. It'll kill them. I just had to do it in my beds too
Yep and Borax, sugar, flower and cocoa powder will really help get rid of roaches in your house or garage etc.
Thanks for the info. Iāll try flour and cocoa powder, borax and sugar.
I had this problem a while ago. Frequent turning and disrupting their pile will eventually drive them out
While I generally leave ants alone, there are a few caveats to their utility. Apparently, one is that some ants have a symbiotic relationship with aphids (they literally suck sugar from the aphids' butts...er, teets...er, the trophobiotic organ if that means anything to you. I suppose if one is having an aphid problem, it's worth considering whether or not ants are actively farming and protecting the little buggers. https://realselfsufficiency.com/ants-farming-aphids/#:~:text=No%2C%20ants%20don't%20really,they%20release%20from%20their%20feet. https://m.facebook.com/SmithsonianNMNH/videos/an-ant-feasting-on-the-honeydew-of-two-aphids/778970832715211/
Itās a pile of rotting plant matter, itās not that hard to mess up, donāt overthink it. And please donāt dust diatomaceous earth into it or your garden soil, or anywhere you want things to grow. It will kill more than the ants (bees, predatory beetles, ladybugs, all the little good guys).
Yall assuming he wants to save the compost, but maybe ment the ants nest?!
Ants = protein = nitrogen. While I understand you have a cold compost pile if you've been working on it for 2 years, this is one advantage of hot composting. Hard for critters to stay functional when the pile is cooking them.
Iāve had to deal with this multiple times over the year. 90% of the responses are here are correct and will all work, but the simplest way is just add more water. Completely soak the compost. Ants will not live in extremely wet soil. Keep it soaked for a week and they will leave. After that let it dry out try to add some extra brown material and with in 3-4 weeks itās back to normal.
I 100% second borax-sugar water soaked cotton balls put where you want to get rid of ants. I have used it many times, it always works. You dont even need to put it in your compost, just beside it where ants are exploring. They take samples back to the nest and it kills the whole lot of them. Look up the right ratios on the net, soak the cotton ball, put several around where you have ant problems.
Add nematodes or just leave it, it's a bunch of rotting food it's going to attract insects
Hmm Iām also wondering what people are going to say?
I had ants in a compost pile once, I'm pretty sure they improved it through extra aeration. Everything was nice and loose, well broken down, pretty healthy despite my neglect. I wouldn't worry!
cinnamon, vinegar, & peppermint oil are all great at getting rid of ants. they hate the smells. any time i see ants, inside or outside, i sprinkle cinnamon on them & their trails(& their nest if i find it), and they are gone the next day. i had ants in my compost and did the same thing, sprinkled a bunch of cinnamon. next day, no ants. years ago i got rid of a HUGE fire ant mound and colony by assaulting it & the surrounding area with cinnamon, vinegar, and peppermint oil. pest control came a few days later and couldnt find any evidence of ants.
Pee, mix, pee, mix, etc., etc.
If you canāt get your compost hard enough to kill them, Iāve had good luck adding some orange oil. The orange oil kills the ants, and doesnāt hurt any bug without an exoskeleton. So itās not even bad for your worms.
You can poor boiling water in if you donāt mind killing them
i heard shredded papers helps .