Ants !!

Hi there everyone

As I don't have a garden a friend gave me a couple of bags of soil straight from his garden so that I could use it (mixed with a little potting soil) to plant some herbs (particularly thyme and rosemary) in pots on my terrasse.
However the earth is full of ants !!!!
They are quite large and reddish in colour...

Anyway I haven't dared planting anything at all in this soil as I'm sure the ants would devour everything...

What (if anything) can I do to get rid of them from the earth ??
I read somewhere to soak the soil in boiling water... would this be effective ? Or should I give up before I start and use only potting soil ?

Shame as I have 2 bin liners full of garden soil but if it's ruined because of the ants I'd rather not take the risk of them eating there way through my herbs....

Any ideas ?

Thanks

 

Boiling it would kill of the ants. Do you mean you have this soil in your house now?

 

No ! it's in bags outside on the patio....

 

I think ants only take dead stuff away, so if your using it out side i wouldn't worry about them. They'll probably disappear anyway because they'll be lost away from their nest.

 

If I were you i'd get a couple of bags of potting compost and throw away the stuff you've been given. Morrisons do a really good value one at only £2.25 for 20L so its 'dirt' (haha:o) cheap.
Not just because of the ants but also using earth direct from a garden may have other unwanted pests and weeds in it.

 

Yeah you maybe right.... don't think I'll bother....

thanks

 

good luck with the herbs...nothing better than fresh from the garden

 

Ants are harmless. They can be a pest in a kitchen where they go for sweet sugary things like jam and honey. But generally they prefer to stay outside and make their nests in the ground.

I have cohabited with ants on various occasions and found that if I put small dishes of jam in out of the way corners, they generally stayed away from my food cupboards!

They don't eat plants but they often keep 'herds' of green fly which they milk for the sweet substance they excrete as urine! I would suspect that your ants will depart when you have employed your earth/compost or whatever it is.