To have destroyed a whole eco system :(

[Lucyellensmum99]

I did, i admit it, and i feel terrible.

Last evening i was having a tidy in the garden - its a bit of a site at the moment as DP leaves his work stuff everywhere, drives me nuts but thats another thread! Anyway, there was a big pile of mud/cuttings and general crap that needed shifting. DP had put a bag of sawdust over it. Now it possibly has been there a fair few weeks.

So i picked up the bag to find an ants nest, complete with eggs - they were in a total frenzy of moving the eggs out of the light and back into safety. fascinating, i watched for a bit, showed DD who thought it was very cool. But anyway, i really needed to shift the pile - clearing patio area, so..........

I did try and just fork the whole lot over to another part of the garden without disturbing, but i really didn't do very well and ended up pretty much devestating the ants nest. I am just hoping that i didn't disturb the queen too much

I still feel bad now! I have to go and complete the job :(

You sound very sweet.

When I was digging up a patch for vegetables, I had the same thing - except that I brought my chickens over so that they could feast upon the exposed ants and larvae...

Paiviaso - I would have done the same if i had chickens (circle of life and all that) but i don't

You sound very sweet indeed! Much much sweeter than me anyway. I would have destroyed the whole thing without a second thought...

I did that last summer, had an barrel with an ornamental grass in it that had died off. I turned the barrel over to get rid of the stump and roots and a whole ant village came out.... I shoved it all back in really quickly and hoped they could repair the damage.

My DS1 has accidentally destroyed a few ant nests whilst "gardening". Not only does he then watch the ants frantically trying to save the eggs, he also lets them retaliate by running all over him biting...

I always rescue insects too - when the paddling pool is out DD and I are constantly checking for drowning bees and flies.

I shouldn't worry about the ants too much - they will rebuild wherever the queen ended up. The ants that are separated from the queen will feed other insects and birds or enrich the general area with their tiny remains.

You are too nice - I had a massive ant colony in the middle of my vegetable plot and had to destroy it because they kept swarming over my feet and up the fork/spade whenever I tried to do any work in it. They are interesting but they're also a PITA when they're in the wrong place.

Yup I would have destroyed the lot too. Mind you we had a really bad year with ants last year and got 2 or 3 infestations inside which was horrible - including flying ants in the spare bedroom.

Speaking of which - gulp - I heard on the radio that today is flying ants day. I was horrified to find one flying ant crawling on the carpet in the spare room this morning so I zapped the whole room with a noxious insect spray and shut the door. I bought reinforcements today so am just steeling myself for what I might find when I get home.

KILL THEM

We are over run with the little bastards! Get the boiling water out!

cool flying ant day, i did see ONE yesterday, but not seen any today - maybe they are late, apparently there is some sort of thing you can do to report them for a survey, i will see if i can find the link

sorry, im such a geek

Youre better than me. I poured boiling water all over millions and billions ant eggs last week and their trillions on bright red ant parents. But in my defence is was either their babies or mine, and no way was I letting mine get bitten.

Incidentally, does anyone live in the sticks? Since Ive moved here the place is rife with bugs of all kinds, despite a busy road dividing my home and the farm opposite. In my old place (city) we could sit straight on the grass in the summer. Here you sit for less than a minute before youre stung or bitten. Its really frustrating.

There must be at least 3 dozen ant nests in our garden. I so would not worry about disturbing just one of them.

I would feel guilty too! We have a huge ant's nest under our patio - I have to use masking tape to cover (unbelievably tiny) gaps in our patio doors to stop them coming into the house. Flying any day is amazing - absolutely gross and fascinating all at once. Anyway, at some point we will extend and the ant's nest will have to go, as well as some trees, and I feel horribly guilty about it already.

if you are really really bored and have time to l#kill, put a tea spoon of sugar down in the vicinity of the nest and watch them come and carry away every grain! fascinating I need to get out more

im going to do that tomorrow morning

OHforDUCKs - I work in a house out in the sticks, fields around 3 sides of the house, horses in the field opposite. Though it is lovely to see all the wildlife (foxes, rabbits, deer, owls & lots of different bird species) it does bring with it many different insects which aren't quite so appealing. One of us always has some kind of insect bite, if you open a window there are always quite a few flies find their way in - you can't sit on the grass for rabbit poo or prickly weeds. Nigh on impossible to keep the lawns weed free as they just get blown into the garden from the surrounding fields.

I kill ants in the wrong place.

Pots I'm trying to replant is the wrong place.

My kitchen is the wrong place.

The year the flying ants took up residence upstairs in DD1's room was definitely the wrong place.

We once had the paddling pool down in a different part of the lawn to usual for a few days, and when we took it up, found that there were lots of ants and eggs right underneath it. Much frenzied activity as the adults took the eggs back down into the soil. I don't think it really harmed them to move back from whence they'd come.

LMAO at people complaining about insects and rabbits poo when they move to the "sticks"