Compost Piles & Ants

[Donna deMedicis]

My method all this summer has been to pile greens (coffee grounds / kitchen scraps, mostly) layered with browns (shredded newspapers and leaves) in a corner of my back yard. I live WAY out in the country, so aesthetics are not a problem.

My plan was to take this lovely stuff and pile it on my lasagna-gardened flower beds after the first couple of frost.

This a.m., I was out there, shoveling into three 40 gal. trash cans in preparation, and that stuff is eaten up with ants. And the ants became furious at the shoveling activity and bit the hell outta me.

The 3 trash cans are just gonna sit there, 'cause frost is probably 30 - 45 days away (South Carolina -- Zone 8).

WILL the cold kill the little rat bastards? IF I simply leave it there until April, will the little biting things be dead?

To prevent future outbreaks, I plan to fling a few handfuls, amongst the layers, of ant killer pellets as I build up my pile again. It makes me sad to introduce chemicals, but it ain't fun to play in your compost pile if you have to battle little creatures who hate your guts and are willing to prove it with every shovel full.

Donna

[Doug Kanter]

Do you plan to use your poisoned compost in a garden where you grow food?

[Donna deMedicis]

Nope. Just flowers.

Donna

[Janet Baraclough..]

The message from Donna deMedicis contains these words:

Ants like dry places. All you need do is soak the compost-pile very thoroughly and they'll move out.

Janet.

[Donna deMedicis]

Too cool! Easily done and no chemical!

Thanks!

Donna

[hippy gardener]

You're killing off Microarthropods as well!!!!

But heck as long as you only poison flowers.....duh!

[Doug Kanter]

No wonder most of the fish I catch are full of chemicals.

[Volfie]

message

You fish in compost piles?

:D

[Doug Kanter]

contains

That doesn't deserve a response. If you reach the age of 18 and don't know how chemicals end up in wildlife, you're hopeless.

[Hound Dog]

My compost pile was alive with fire-ants this summer.

I was at my wits end trying to decide what to do. I even sought advice from this and other news groups. Then I remembered. Every time I knocked over a fire-ant mound in my yard, the ants abandoned that mound.

I turned my compost pile and the ants left it and set up a new mound elsewhere on my lawn, which I treated with antrol.(?)

I now turn my compost pile,and soak it down every week or two. Since then I've not had any further problem with the pile being invaded by fire-ants.

[Volfie]

Did you notice that no one was paying any attention to your snarks except for my one reply? I was hoping you'd catch on to let up but I guess you haven't reached your majority yet, either.

Giselle ()

[Doug Kanter]

Giselle, in case you haven't noticed, there's still an enormous contingent of people who believe pesticides are probably safe, and that all the hubbub is for nothing. For these people, a bucket of cold water over the head is just the thing.

[Hound Dog]

I use whatever is needed to get my lawn and gardens in good condition and keep them that way. (Of course I don't use anything poisonous on my vegetable gardens.)

However, I would also be concerned about using poisons in my compost pile because whatever you use to kill the ants will most likely have a negative effect on the worms, and micro-organisms needed to convert the compost to good soil.

[Doug Kanter]

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Well, just keep in mind that everything you put on your lawn ends up SOMEWHERE. Some of it ends up washed into storm drains, and that may end up in your drinking water and/or a nearby lake. In the lake, it ends up in the fish that you or someone else (perhaps your kids or grandkids) want to eat at some point.

Homeowners have replaced industry as the largest source of pesticide/herbicide pollution.

[zxcvbob]

Some gets broken down by soil bacteria and disappears. It's only a problem if you overload the system, or apply chemicals in a reckless manner so they get washed into the storm sewer right away.

The ChemLawn folks around here scare me with the all the chemicals they use. You can smell the herbicide in the air when they come through and treat all the neighbors' yards. I use the same chemicals at perhaps

1/1000 the rate they do, or less, and I think that's OK. (Of course it's OK for *me* to do it. ;-)

When I used to get fire ants in my compost pile, I just wore cowboy boots when I turned the pile so I could brush off the ants before they got me. I'd get the pile pretty wet and fluff it up really good, and the heat would keep the ants sort of under control. I liked to think it killed them, but they probably just moved deep underground.

You could also pour boiling water in the compost pile right where you think the heart of the ant nest is. If you pour boiling water in the lawn to kill an ant next, it will kill the grass and it takes a *long* time to fill back in, but in the compost pile that's not a problem.

Bob

[Stephen M. Henning]

But life expectancy is not quality of life.

• Health costs keep going up. We have more sick people.

• Cancer rates keep going up.

• Diabetes rates keep going up.

• Heart disease keeps affecting more people.

• New diseases are emerging every year.

• New nursing homes are being built each year.

• Medicare expenses are increasing each year.

• More people are being rescued from death by our health care system.

Imagine how long life expectancy would be if we had today's health care system, today's wide variety of healthy foods, and clean air and clean water.

We don't own the earth, we just use it a while and pass it on to our children and grandchildren.

[Doug Kanter]

Like I said, there are still people......

What's your personal and scientific opinion regarding dioxin and mercury in fish? No links, no cut & paste jobs. YOUR opinion.

[hippy gardener]

Ever here of a rectal cranial inversion? Your head COULD be removed from your arse!

[Janet Baraclough..]

The message from "Doug Kanter" contains these words:

So, why did you snark when a non-pesticide organic method of dispersing the ants without killing them or wasting the compost heap, was eagerly received by the OP?

Janet

[Hound Dog]

Ever heard of "Chicken Little?"

Seems strange that we are poisoning our lands and waters so terribly, but yet life expectancy keeps extending every year.