I tried to relocate an ant colony- ewww!!!

[DogwoodMama]

I've been planting snapdragons, and right where I wanted to plant some I discovered a HUGE ant colony... in our back gardens, the co-op gardeners give us a heavy layer of mulch every year... in combination with the stepping stones that we put in, apparently we have provided a wonderful place for them to nest... so I turned over some soil and discovered zillions of tiny black ants everywhere and also these small white pupae (I assume, look like tiny white worms). The ants were busy crawling all over them, I assume trying to save them from me? :shrug I didn't know what to do, but didn't want them there, so I took my spade and scooped them up and put them at the base of a lilac bush about 20 feet away... then I kept digging and found more and more. :eek I poked around about a 2 foot square area and kept running into the white worms. Then I turned a stepping stone over and found a bunch more. I tried to "transplant" as many of them as I could out of the area where I wanted to put my flowers... I know they're hard to kill, so hopefully they can re-do their colony where I moved them to? I just sort of made a big pile of dirt with all the ants & larvae/pupae/worm thingies in it...

I have nothing against ants generally, but just didn't want this huge thing near where Charlotte would play... Did I do the right thing or was I just mean? Are ants bad to have in your garden or OK? I'm pretty clueless about this, and did a quick websearch and mostly found factoids about ants and stuff about keeping ant colonies....

http://www.antcolony.org/links.htm

Are these carpenter ants or something else?

[DogwoodMama]

In case anyone else has ants, I just found this cool website to address whether ants are friend or foe in the garden...

http://www.gardenseeker.com/ants.htm

[joyfulmomof2]

I don't mean to be even meaner to ants, but I just want to say that you were a lot kinder than I would have been. :)

[AKCristyMJ]

Cool!!!!!

I highly doubt you disturbed them one bit. :P
1st, chances are very good all the ants you removed will easily find their way back home, they are very good at that and while doing so they will be a great feast for many other bugs! You may have now increased some other bug ant eater populations in your yard! :think

2nd, their nests are very deep and well protected.
Unless you removed/killed the Queen then the nest stays and she'll just make up for the loss of all those worker ants you removed.

3rd, that Pupae thing you mentioned is very interesting!!!
Because believe it or not it was probably an ant war you were witnessing!
Ants often at certain times will invade other ant nests, they kill and wreak havoc sometimes kidnapping the Queen if their Queen died without any "Princesses" to take over.
But mostly they invade to steal the pupae/larvae and then they return to their nest to regrow them into pure slave ants!
So that may have been why you saw so many-because it was 2 nests of ants at war-and the pupae and why they ignored you and seemed so huge a nest.

Ants, just like humans, not only have wars and POW's but also slaves :neutral......and scientists think we evolved from Apes?? lol :rolleyes

I'd not worry much bout the nest.
Either this ant war itself has destroyed it, or you just saw it on a bad day where as normally you'd not know they were there.
Most ants are harmless and play a vital role in a gardens circle of life I think. They kill lotsa bugs and by defending their nest they will keep other bugs away.....depends on the ant tho.

Regardless they are virtually impossible to kill.
They can even survive days under water!!
If you do manage to pose a big enough threat to their colony they can quickly and easily re-locate.
And sometimes when they do they will carry their pupae to the new colony, so that too may have been what you saw which would exsplain why so many were unsually near the surface. But in most cases they relocate at night and when their current home is unsafe, sounds like that nest was pretty cozy. lol

And how do I know this boring info?? I did a long essay report on Ants in 6th grade. :O

[Hannah Jo]

Calvin: Quick! Come see an antelope!
Hobbes: Where? Where?
Calvin: Right here! See? She's getting ready to go down the ladder into her boyfriend's car!
:laughtears

Sorry. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

[AKCristyMJ]

i don't get it :shifty

[Hannah Jo]

Hmm...maybe the joke loses something without the pictures from the comic...

ant-elope

Get it? Get it?

[DogwoodMama]

Cristy-ann- very interesting. :tu

Hannah Jo- :laughtears