Ants in the compost bin - does it matter?

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Anyone know what I should do, if anything? There are hundreds of them, not just a few, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had set up home there. We do just put uncooked fruit and veg peelings etc in, but sometimes that will mean quite sweet things so I can see why they are keen.

OOh I will be interested to watch this one, I too was wondering the same question. The ants in my conpost bin are huge too! bigger than normal garden ants.
What about slugs? I hate slugs at the best of times, but how dare they eat my lovely compost!!!!

i don't know
there are gazillions of woodlice in mine

don't know either but I try to kill the ones in mine. I think they undermine plant roots don't they so you wouldn't want them in the compost when you use it? Guess you could sterilise it before use.

Sterilise
Gosh, sounds difficult....

How do you kill them Tatt? If I put insecticide on wouldn't it damage the compost?

No problem with ants in your compost bin (or slugs for that matter). Ants will make your compost more crumbly and slugs are doing the composting for you. The ants are there for the warmth and protection the bin provides.

No need to sterlise the compost becasue of ants, if you don't want them on your beds just spread your compost onto an opened compost bag (or similar) and leave it for a few minutes before adding it to your beds - they'll soon scatter once they are exposed or the birds will get them.

I put boiling water on them, also keeps the compost moist. Sterilissing sounds too difficult to me, too

Many thanks BBM - that's good to know

boiling water not good on compost as it will kill the bacteria that are doing the composting and those that you need for good soil biology. You could get away with a bit of boiling water without ruining your compost environment but it will slow down the decomposition process (and probably miss a fair few ants)

Mine is infested with big ants as well, must be quite a common thing