Living with ants

How do you get them to work for you? Mine don't seem to be particularly biddable.

 

You'd only need one for a meal.

 

A small whip works for me.

 

In borneo, tree ant larvae sell for the same price as sirloin steak. A good source of protein and fat, if you can climb 40m up a tree and avoid being swarmed. Just an idea

We have ants living under our pots and every year they nuptial flight. They are only aggressive during that period thankfully. i like them

 

Strangely so do terns, when I was in your area (GU51) , observed great hordes (flocks ?) of terns swooping and snatching single ants about 150 feet above us as the streams headed downwing towards Fleet Pond, usually about July 11th.

 

An elderly apple tree died in our garden. We cut it down to a stump. Eventually, over many years, the red ants disposed of it and moved on.
Many years ago when I was a young and ignorant gardener, I flooded an ants' nest. Then I saw them desperately trying to save the eggs. I gave them some lolly stick bridges which they used to good effect
Stay out of the porch, off the patio and out of my containers and we'll live in peace.

 

I get big nests of them in my compost bin and they seem to like stashing their eggs right up on the rim of the twist-off lid; when I open it they all scurry around desperately rescuing them.

 

We get lots of ants in the greenhouse. Most of the time we all ignore each other but occasionally there’s a conflict of interest. At the weekend I needed to use a couple of seed trays which had been sat on the soil bed. The lower tray had a layer of ants eggs on the base and of course as soon as disturbed it all hell broke loose. Although I don’t mind a few ants, I can’t cope with lots of them swarming all over whilst I’m trying to use something so I popped it outside and let the robins have a feast.