Ants and anthills

[Elean0r]

We've got a couple of anthills in our garden that we've left alone, they're now about a foot high with grass growing through them. Trouble is we want to grow some vegetables, and the best place is where these anthills are.

Is there any way we can perhaps move them to another part of the garden, or is that a silly idea?

About how deep into the soil does an ant colony go?

Does anybody know what's likely to happen if we first flatten (take the top off) the the anthills and then double dig the area. Will it totally destroy the colony or could they sort of regroup and start again?

[Vincent86]

Hi. I guess looking for another place to plant your vegetables is a lot easier?

[Paul mabbott]

What sort of ant are they?

[watsthat]

They may be wood ants, they`re the only ant hills I`ve ever seen. We have lots of black ants where we live, they just seem to use temporary nest sites and when the larva hatch, the winged females disperse to start another colony.

Cheers

Pete

[Elean0r]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

What sort of ant are they?

Small black ones

They aren't wood ants. The anthills are excavated soil that they somehow manage to push upwards without killing the grass.

It's the best part of the garden for growing vegetables because it's well drained and away from trees, and the other bit that could have been used has now got a pond in it.

[Kayleigh]

Are you talking about small ant hills as I have seen tiny ones if you dig them over the ants will either re-dig the same spot or move on..
I would dig them up..

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Elean0r

We've got a couple of anthills in our garden that we've left alone, they're now about a foot high with grass growing through them. Trouble is we want to grow some vegetables, and the best place is where these anthills are. Is there any way we can perhaps move them to another part of the garden, or is that a silly idea? About how deep into the soil does an ant colony go?

Does anybody know what's likely to happen if we first flatten (take the top off) the the anthills and then double dig the area. Will it totally destroy the colony or could they sort of regroup and start again?

Ants are a much underated resource to gardeners (there a tradditional attagonism from gardeners mainly because of a few annoying habits the ants have, such as distributing root aphids) so if you can, continue to cherish your two 'hills'. By the sounds of it (grass growing through them) these are relatively new hills where the ants have used grass stems as the scaffolding on which to build up the soil. If this is the case you may find there's actually quite a small mass of soil above ground.

If you definitely do need to have the nests moved from their current location -the following may help a successful transfer:

Prepare a new space on ground that is not waterlogged and which gets some sun. Strip off any turf and loosen any compacted soil, set a small yoghurt pot or similar container with a few dessert spoons of sugar into the centre. Then dig out the hill to be moved, aiming to go at least 15cm below the surrounding ground surface. Move to the new location and seal the 'join' between the hill edge and surrounding surface with turf or soil. If you are moving both hills locate them at least a metre apart.

Double digging of the orginial location will inhibit any return of the ants to that location. - It would be great if you do go ahead with this if you could post a note here next spring to say what the results were.

CM

[Elean0r]

Thanks for the ideas.

They aren't new anthills, but we know there are ants in them which we thought was a bit odd because we thought a queen would only last a year. We don't really know what goes on inside the anthills, so it will be interesting to find out.

It's probably the worst time of year to try to move them, so maybe we should try it on a warmish day.

They'll have to be moved to the edge of the garden, close to the hedge, so they might not be very happy about it, but it'll give them a chance.