In liking the ants in my garden?

[hiddenhome]

We have a largish colony of black ants next to the chicken coop.

They're there every year and every summer some of them have wings and gather on the chicken wire before all flying off, to presumably start another colony.

I sit and watch them for ages and take them fruit to eat

I can understand people not wanting them in the kitchen or wherever, but why do people generally object to ants?

They're busy and interesting

AIBU in liking these tiny things?

[HowlingBitch]

YANBU.

They make me feel horribly lazy though.

[AuntiePickleBottom]

get an ant farm, my son has one and theyhave made intresting shapes in the tank

[usualsuspect]

Black ants are ok ..its the evil red ones that you have to watch

And flying ant day is a bit yuk

[AgentZigzag]

YANBU, we have a load under a flower pot in the front garden and I'm quite attached to the little blighters

[MumblingRagDoll]

I really hate the look of the winged ones. They nest near my patio doors every year and it's gross. They come inside and sit on the window. They look dirty somehow. Not ordinary ants...they look ok...it's the wingy buggers that get to me.

[AgentZigzag]

I've always wondered about the 'flying ants day' (good name for it) so are they special ants bred for the purpose of sewing their oats?

[hiddenhome]

Oh, ds1 had an ant farm, but he wouldn't look after it, so I took it over.

Unfortunately, I managed to drown the ants by adding too much water to their little tank thingy

Flying ant day is awesome! We just sit and watch them until they all fly off

[PeopleCallMeTricky]

We used to have ants in the garden, they don't seem to be there now for some reason. My exp's mum bought me some ant killer after I mentioned them to her, I didn't say that I wanted to get rid of them or anything, but for some reason I suppose she thought that was what you do with ants. I never used it on them though. I'm not a fan of killing things just for the sake of it.

[AgentZigzag]

hehe I meant sowing of course.

DH reckons the flying ones are fed something different.

[hiddenhome]

The flying ants are like brave pilots going off to another world

[AuntiePickleBottom]

i don't mind ants, but daddy longlegss

[hiddenhome]

We also have ants who live on the small sycamore tree and they 'farm' the aphids. They clip the wings off them and then guard them. If you go near the aphids, the ants try to attack you. I think the ants gather some sort of discharge that the aphids produce. In turn, I suppose the aphids get protection from predators.