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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Ants, ants, ants....they seem to have arrived in my garden earlier than ever before. Ants may not cause a lot of harm to your garden plants, but they're certainly irritating if you like to sit out in your garden, or simply prefer not to be bitten when you're trying to do a spot of weeding or planting. But if you, like me have noticed these orange, reddish or brownish-black critters invading your garden space of late, and decidely earlier than usual,take comfort....you're not alone. Everywhere I go gardeners ask me about ants and how to control them. Its the sort of question I'd usually associate with the summer, but not this year. They seem to be in our gardens in their hoards !
So what can you do? First, its definitely worth trying the new biological control produced by the company than makes the Nemasys range of biological controls (you may have used them to great effect on your vine weevils, slugs, caterpillars, leatherjackets, red spider mite, whitefly etc). I've not tried it myself yet, though I hope to shortly but it is said to send ants disappearing off from your garden, without causing any adverse effects to other wildlife. Certainly sounds worth a try. Other than that you could try a chemical control (but remember that these generally work best if you disturb the ants' nests first, or there is the oft recommended age old 'remedy' of a kettle full (or two) of boiling water applied direct in to the nest. Remember with this though ,that you'll need to make sure you don't hit the nearby plants, as they won't appreciate being blanched !! Finally, it is worth remembering that ants are pretty well impossible to anihilate completely from your plot, so if they're causing you grief when you enjoy lunch outside, perhaps just concentrate on this area and let the others be........after all, as my lovely mother used to say, 'be kind to your six-legged friends, an ant may be somebody's mother!'
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