![]() Just as supply ships victual the Navy while being protected by destroyers, so do aphids provide food to ants, and in turn are protected by them. Ants and aphids go together they have a symbiotic relationship. That’s because the ants, albeit indirectly, are a threat to your garden. Third – does your garden have an aphid problem that you can’t get under control? Or a mealybug or whitefly problem? If yes, then you must get rid of the ants’ nest. Definitely Not What you Want to see on Your Lawn! Though subsoil ant activity is a good thing in general, when it is below or beside delicate roots, it can disturb them and affect their uptake of soil nutrients. Second – if the ants’ nest is near shrubs and plants that have delicate roots or those that are wilting without any discernible reason, then the ants’ nest may have to go. If the answers are ‘Yes,’ the affirmatives answer the bigger question too. So why, under what circumstances, would it be the right decision to get rid of an ants’ nest?įirst – are the ants ruining your landscaping and depositing piles of soil on the lawn? Is the ants’ nest tucked away by the fence or is it an eyesore? Is it getting bigger and bigger? Getting rid of an entire ant colony can throw that healthy garden ecosystem out of whack.īelieve it or not, there are yet more reasons to tolerate an ants’ nest in the yard but, like we said, this article is not about the positives of ants in the garden! Ants’ Sub-soil Activity is in General Beneficial for the Garden When To Get Rid Of An Ants’ Nest While they prey on various small garden pests, they themselves are themselves preyed upon by small birds and lizards. On the other hand, if you destroy or ‘evict’ your garden’s resident ants, then sooner or later advance scouts or a roaming ant colony will come upon your yard, see it as virgin territory ripe for occupation, and lay down stakes!Īlso keep in mind that ants play a part in a healthy garden ecosystem. Some also attack and prey on the pests themselves.Īnts are territorial insects so as long as your garden has one ant colony you won’t be getting another one unless an invading troop attacks and defeats the resident ants. Many, if not most, species of ants actually control or reduce the population of garden pests because they prey on their larvae and eggs. Talk about dead earthworms, though ants are scavengers in the main, many UK species are also predators. Their incessant subterranean activity results in particulate matter from the surface being pulled underneath, deep down, and vice versa, improving the fertility of the soil.Īlso, their tunnelling into and through the soil aerates it which assists in the decomposition of organic matter – dry leaves and dead earthworms alike. To begin with, they are natural-born tillers of the soil. For the most part they are teeny-weeny ‘garden hands’. However, so that you can make a fully informed decision as to that ants’ nest, before we proceed to outline the ways to get rid of it, a concise outline as to the beneficial effects of these tiny insects.Īnts, as such and under normal circumstances, are not garden pests. The purpose of this article is not to elaborate upon the benefits that ants can and do bring in the garden. If you know you have an ants’ nest in your garden, we’d recommend you only get rid of it if you also know that the ants are damaging your garden. So where an ants’ nest is concerned, perhaps ignorance is bliss. You may be concerned because you know about an ants’ nest in your garden.īut many, many homeowners have ants’ nests in their respective gardens – but they don’t even know about the problem and so the ‘problem’ is not a problem. That doesn’t mean you have to have them in your garden if you don’t want to, it’s just to get across that there’s nothing particularly unusual about having ants in your garden. So you have an ants’ nest in your garden.īefore you go ballistic and take out the heavy artillery, let’s take a minute or two to evaluate whether the ants are an actual problem and need to be taken care of, and, if so, choose a solution that fits the scale of the problem and will do no or minimum collateral damage.Īnts in the yard are, well, normal. We lay out half-a-dozen methods, from plain old water to highly-technical nematode release. That said, there are some legitimate reasons to eradicate an ants’ nest, particularly if you have a problem with aphids or similar pests. In fact, ants perform multiple beneficial functions in the garden. It is not exactly unusual to have ants, or even an ants’ nest, in your yard.
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