Those Evil Red Ants

Fire Ants. Carpenter Ants. Biting Ants.

Red Ants.


Just thinking about them made me, well, antsy.

Especially because there is a huge colony of them in my backyard. I was concerned for my pets, who are quite oblivious to these fellows, and of course, for my garden.

But now I have seen the light!

The ants in my yard are western thatching ants. It turns out that these bad boys eat herbivorous insects, especially aphids, which means that they can act as a police force protecting nearby plants that might otherwise fall prey to excess herbivory. That they are already established is a bonus: by including them in my plans for the garden, with some knowledge of their habits and behavior, I can do what permaculturists do best:

Turn unwanted ants into another ally in the garden.

Huzzah!

My garden design is evolving and becoming more detailed every day. With this new information, I have one more concrete goal to help the design gel: I want to surround these ants with plants that need protection from pests. I also want to ensure that they have adequate water supply, so I will elongate a burm that I've designed into the garden, bringing it right past them. I will also cut off the possibility of negative ant-pet interaction by fencing off the donut of delight that will be: THE ANT GARDEN.

There will be an offering of raspberry bushes and / or milk thistle very close to the colony (as close as I can get without becoming terrified of bites and running away) for them to 'ranch' their aphids. These bushes will likely suffer as the aphids are encouraged by the ants to eat them, become plump with nectar, and then become food themselves. Around those I'll put plants that are less attractive for aphid ranches, but may become prey to slugs or beetles. My theory is that the ants will find those pests during their rounds, and hunt them for food, thus protecting the plants in the long-run. Finally, I'll put a fence around the whole donut to keep the dogs out!

I'll let you know how it goes.

It is supposed to be sunny for a few days after nearly a week of late-season snow. Can't get to get outside and start building!