Our Pest Control Expert, Julian Ives, has spent many years advising commercial growers and gardeners on the subject of safe and efficient natural pest control treatments.

Here he shares his experience on the problems Ants can cause in the garden...

Appearance and Lifecycle
Ants are very interesting insects with colonies or nests that are very well organised, each one can contain from several hundred ants to several thousand ants. The colonies contain mainly worker ants, which are sterile females. The life expectancy of an ant is about 45-60 days. Ant nests will also include male ants and queen ants, which are fertile females. These females lay eggs in the brood chambers of the ant nests. The worker ants  job is to feed the young ant larvae, which they do with a liquid secretion. The larvae then develop into pupae. They turn into adults in about 8 weeks. Ant nests will also produce winged ants. These tend to emerge in humid weather in the summer. The winged adults are both male and female. The males die after mating and the new young queen ants then go off to set up new ant nests. The common ants found in the UK are red and black ants including Lasius niger; a black ant and Myrmica and Formica species, which are red ants. Ants are active from April until late September.

Symptoms and Damage
Ants are not a serious pest to gardeners and represent more of a nuisance. The main problem they cause is ant mounds in lawns, which is normally caused by the yellow meadow ant. They like lawns with short grass, so that warmth can reach their nest underneath. In high numbers they can restrict the use of lawns and make mowing lawns a problem. Ants also make their nests under patio areas or even in flower pots. Ants are also found on plants when they harvest the sticky substance called honeydew that aphids produce. This can lead them to protect aphids from predators like Ladybirds, which restricts biological control of aphids with predators.
Some ants will also sting by releasing formic acid. This normally occurs when their colonies are disturbed or they are attacked. Red ants tend to be the most aggressive.

Natural Choice Treatments
There are two Natural Choice treatments for ants, available in various pack and bottle sizes. Choose ant-displacing nematodes for lawns, flower beds and containers and for harder to access areas in between paving, under slabs and indoors, apply the natural pyrethrum based ant powder; Agrothrin.