Chicken bald back

[soapdragon]

I have just gone out to our plastic compost bin to empty out the broad bean pods (ohhhh, those beans were DELICIOUS! ) and, on opening the lid, was horrified to find a MASSIVE ant invasion! There are thousands of the little doodahs as well as HUGE quantities of eggs - never seen anything like it before!

 

We do tend towards ants in the neighbourhood but this is just vast! Question is...what should I be doing; leaving well alone, ant powdering liberally or, my preferred method tho it would prob kill off the worms too, dousing with lots of boiling water?

[Olly]

I'd leave them be - they will do a fantastic job of breaking stuff down. If it really bothers you though, leave the lid off or dig the compost out and let the hens see it ... the eggs will be scoffed in no time, but ants are clearly rather spicy as my hens can be seen wiping their beaks on the paving after they've found a nest!

[chickric]

I did hear on the Gardeners Question Time a while ago that ants in the compost were not good as they can kill all the worms etc. One reason for the ants could be that it is too dry and the ants don't like it if it is wetter, and will go elsewhere. But then a quick google and some people say it's not a problem.

 

Also a quick tip if you want to get rid of an ants nest, feed them some semolina. Apparently the workers will feed it to the queen, but it swells up inside her so she 'explodes' so the nest will move.

[Daphne]

Whenever I found an ants nest in the compost I did use boiling water - and thinking about it now, it was always in the same bin, a drier bin (a bin in full sun all day long) than the rest which probably explains why it had fewer worms so TBH I didn't worry about them. Also, the ants nest is usually at the top so I figured that I'd be killing the current generation and the next (the eggs). The reason I didn't live and let live is that most of my compost was used on veg beds and I was worried that I'd be transferring hundreds of ants into my veggies.

[Alis girls]

Exploding queen ants - I am laughing - sorry - I like you hate creepy crawlies esp in the house - outside no prob. I squeak when agitated about a bug - this morning I thought we had a worm on the doormat - turned out our new kitten had chewed a bit of leather off my handbag handle. I needed a lie down after - and yes I have chickens and an allotment -just a wossie female.

[gongladosh]

or buy an anteater

[soapdragon]

or buy an anteater

 

Now why didn't I think of that Just looking them up on E bay

[chickric]

or buy an anteater

 

How do you think it would get on with the Chickens?

 

Introductions may be tricky, why is there no guide for this on the forum

[counturchickens]

I believe this happens when the compost is too dry, so I would water it. I use the hens and ducks water!