Ants

[wildside]

Sooooo....

I have been watching this topic with interest... Anyone seen that film with Sean Connery in where he forgets the recipe to his cure for cancer?

First off I would draw the line at all chemicals or nuclear warheads.... You can't control a hive by decimating it's population... It will respond by producing more hive members than you can possibly count... So you spray them again and they produce again... You can't win.. Sorry.... By putting down the chemicals you do destroy the very, and I mean very delicate balance in your garden, under your house or on your lovely roof terrace with it's potted geraniums...

In the house... All food that comes in packets made of plastic or paper should be transferred to glass jars or anything else hard and with lids... (Carrefour have some lovely ones that look great with sugar, rice and cornflakes in (but not in the same jar of course)).... If you have a rubbish bin in your kitchen, get rid of it.... If you buy meat from the supermarket what do you do with the styrofoam thing? Straight in he binbag on the floor in the kitchen??? It needs to be washed first.... A hook in the ceiling and a bit of string holding a bag for your rubbish.... hey presto no ants. Better still all rubbish outside and everything split down for recycling... (No excuse there are all types of recycle bins everywhere)....

Really, I promise, they are only there for the food.. find the food supply, remove it and they will go... Hives don't spend eternities of energy in a place without a food source....

[wildside]

I've still got ants! Couldn't think why they got moved to animals and pets

Well there aren't any boards here for "Wild Spanish Animals" Ants are animals though.. They have to be because they are not plants or minerals and most stuff starts from those three basic headings

[Lavanda]

Hi Wildside,
We are about to move into our campo house. We have SERIOUS ants in on the finca and, presumably, they survive on whatever is below them in the food chain. We had a bare patch of earth after our bonfire session two years ago and my OH seeded the area with appropriate grass seeds. The following day we spent ages watching the ground move. The ants were carrying the seeds, each seed bigger than the ant carrying it. They were carrying the seeds to their nest. Why? Are they vegetarian?

[wildside]

In our garden here in Grazalema i have counted a minimum of 15 species of ant... I can't remember the scientific names and some stand out more than others but the diversity in the simple word "ant" is incredible.... These creatures live as a hive and co operate on a scale that the human race cannot even conceive... yeh, every now and a again a group of people will come together that accomplish some amazing things but how come every single colony of ants on this planet work for the common cause of the hive... Hmmmmm maybe a bit too philosophical....

Anyway, yes Lavanda there are vegetarian ants.... They live on seeds and stuff... You chucking down a load of grass seed was like a bounty to them... they gathered all available resources and made a concerted effort together to "harvest" the good times... Who is toblame for the lack of tennis lawn? The ants? or the person who didn'y learn about his environment first... I once spent two days tilling earth for carrots... I sowed thousands of seeds and spend the next 5 days watching some big ants wit red bums carrying off all of them.. ALL of them.. Not one carrot left... These guys get my respect....

Sorry, I get all excited sometimes but hope my excitement and love of the natural world is infectious....

I have watched tiny ants from one colony raid another different species colony for the eggs...They rear the young who are bigger than them when grown as there own to use as labourers.. (Slaves)...

There are the most tiniest of ants that get in my cupboards who can open a packet of mexican doritos in 3 minutes and eat/ transport the entire contents in 2 days... (yes I have experimented with this)...

The really big ants you see on cork trees I have seen carrying a complete apple core between 50 of them... Could you get 50 mates together now and move something equivalent like an aeroplane between you?

Ants are a pain in the @*beep* but they are incredible creatures.... Think like the hive and live with them not against them and you will get along fine... You definitely will not beat them in the long run....

[julian]

"They were carrying the seeds to their nest. Why? Are they vegetarian"

they probably find it easier to carry back seeds than drag a goat to their nest !!

[wildside]

they probably find it easier to carry back seeds than drag a goat to their nest !!

Ummm
But they are vegetarian Julian...They don't eat goat because that's meat If these guys wanted goat I am sure they would find away to get it...

[El Cid]

But they are vegetarian Julian...They don't eat goat because that's meat .

So why do they devour our cats' very non veggie food? Plus they eat the dead lizards that the cats can't be bothered to eat.

Sid

[Paula]

Think they are not all vegetarians, just like us some eat meat.

I've watched numerous interesting TV programmes on ants, and they must be the most clever and hardworking creatures on the planet.
They are a pest though, we have had them in every room of the house, upstairs bedrooms, bathrooms. They have come through electric sockets, even had them in the fridge once
They really damage patios too.

[wildside]

Sid, How many species of ant are within 100 metres of where you are now?

Some are vegetarian (like in Lavandas example) Some are meat eaters.. (and I mean fresh meat) Some are carrion eaters( eat dead stuff ) and some will eat all sorts... (omnivorous)... I have never heard of vegan ants but would not rule out the possibility.

You are tarring all "ants" with the same brush when in fact they are so different in reality.... They aren't just "ants". They are all different and some are more troublesome than others in Andalucia....

[El Cid]

Sid, How many species of ant are within 100 metres of where you are now?

Probably too many.

Tonight I saw a train of them coming over our wall into the garden.

Tomorrow they will be dead and their nests destroyed. I have no time for them and they fill our garden with aphids.

Sid

[Lavanda]

It comes to something when the most interesting and lively topic on A.Com is about ANTS!!! Another question. Why do they sting/bite? We have some large reddy-black ants - well over a centimetre - and they sometimes just crawl over my feet (deck shoes, no socks) but sometimes they stab me. If I got stabbed by, say, ten of them, would I be ill?

[wildside]

But El Cid, that is my point... You don't know what species you are trying to kill... You may think you have won a battle but you cannot win this war.... If you are killing endemic species of ant then you are simply making more room for the Argentinian ant which can be very troublesome...(The one that really farms aphids)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 57355.html

Put your cats food bowl in a slightly larger bowl filled with water... A moat...problem solved

Why are you cats destroying the local lizard population when they aren't even hungry...Buy a big kids water pistol and squirt them every time you see them stalking a lizard... Problem semi controlled.... They will learn that lizard is ff the menu....Do know that lizards eat ants?

You simply can't beat the hive and working with nature is easier than working against it...

[anis]

...think we must have Argentinian illegals squatting in our fruit trees and vegetarian grass seed eater ants on the ground below . Help, I've been invaded and overrun with the little crittters - they seem to be in huge numbers this year.
An acquaintance of mine who keeps horses ( put your hands over your eyes, Wildside, don't read - it may upset you ) sprays the perimeters of his outbuildings with diesel to keep the invaders out and away from the equine inmates and their food. It works.

[carla]

I'm not racist, I don't care where they are from. I just want them to stay away from my house. Out in the garden is fine. The patio and house are no go areas as far as I'm concerned.
Carla

[El Cid]

Why are you cats destroying the local lizard population when they aren't even hungry

Because they are cats. They don't eat them because they don't like the taste.

If they get a bird the only bit left is the beak!

I've got better things to do than chase them all round the garden with a water pistol!
Now for those ants - no, I don't know what species they are but THEY ARE IN MY GARDEN!

No, I'm not winning the war but I am winning the battles. They have thousands of hectares of campo to live in but that does NOT include my garden!

Sid

[wildside]

Hi,

Don't worry Anis,I can take it Yes diesel does work as a perimeter defence, I know others that have used this as a deterrent. For things like animal outbuildings its practical as well... Not so useful for the household though, and catastrophic for the environment also completely illegal me thinks... Watch out for Seprona......

I have kept ants out before by marking a line across entry points with oil of lavender, (Even scrunching up lavender plants grown for the purpose and scrubbing/rubbing them of the window sill and doorway etc.. I wonder if a liquid "tea" could be made from lavender that would work like the diesel....

Carla, I still maintain that there are a lot of practical deterrent things people can do before they reach for the chemicals.... Outside is a different matter to inside the house as well... Keeping them out of food stuffs/kitchen has to take priority though and this can be done by not giving them a food supply... They are only after one thing... Food!

El Cid, sounds like they are winning to me... It's you that are shouting not them.. hehehehe

[janda_grant2]

I'm not racist, I don't care where they are from. I just want them to stay away from my house. Out in the garden is fine. The patio and house are no go areas as far as I'm concerned.
Carla

No, I'm not winning the war but I am winning the battles. They have thousands of hectares of campo to live in but that does NOT include my garden!

Keeping them out of food stuffs/kitchen has to take priority though and this can be done by not giving them a food supply... They are only after one thing... Food!

Ditto, Ditto,
So why then are there ants in the glass cupboard, bath and living room where there are NO food sources if it is not to make my life a misery! Never been bitten by a large ant, but the little red ones can give a usually totally unprovoked nip - not too painful but a definite reminder they are there. I know I need to eradicate the nest and that spray chemicals only stop them from coming out at that entrance to the nest and they've now started appearing from behind the wall units in the kitchen and I have no desire to refit the kitchen so can I buy Nippon or a spanish equivalent anywhere?

[carla]

I don't have a big house ant problem. All I need to do is keep them out there so if I keep an avenue of a couples of yards right around the house that they won't cross it will suit me. Anyone trying to eradicate the ant population would be up against a brick wall!!
Carla

[wildside]

It comes to something when the most interesting and lively topic on A.Com is about ANTS!!! Another question. Why do they sting/bite? We have some large reddy-black ants - well over a centimetre - and they sometimes just crawl over my feet (deck shoes, no socks) but sometimes they stab me. If I got stabbed by, say, ten of them, would I be ill?

Hi Lavanda... Those tiny little red/orange ones sting a bit, I Stood in a nest once in me flip flops and that chafed a bit... (It seems that it's the smaller ones that will eat almost anything and cut their way in to bags of food etc...)... Those big black ones with the pincers on the front will sometimes give a little test nip but you can't really feel it... (It's relatives of these ants that get used instead of stitches to people wounds in some countries)... I have never heard of an ant species here that have made anyone ill... I suppose if you were a sound sleeper and an entire colony decided to move you back to their nest they could piece you up given time...

Janda_Grant.... Have you had a close look at the ants out and about in your house? Are they carrying anything back to the nest hole?.... Certainly the bricks that make up most houses down here and the amount of cavities and runs make a great habitat for ants... Especially if there is a tiny leak in a pipe in a wall or something giving them a fresh water supply... They may be in your walls for that reason and getting food outside....

The criteria for their lifecycle is very basic... Shelter, water, food

[janda_grant2]

Just thought I'd mention that having sprayed just about every opening the ants could probably use to get into the house, I've gone two whole days with out seeing more than then odd one! Trouble is I have this vision of the little blighters running around behind the tiles carrying pick axes looking for another way in!