Troubled by ants in the garden? 4 ways to combat them without poison

Ants are incredibly useful as food for other garden animals and as cleaners of (garden) waste. But in inconvenient places – such as at your back door – they can cause a nuisance, and then it might be nice to change that. We show you 4 places in the garden where you can encounter ants and how to combat ants outside if they are really in the way.

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Ants usually cause little damage in the garden and often work to your advantage: many plant and animal remains are processed by ants. In doing so, they bring nutrients into your soil, which is good for your plants. The many tunnels also ensure an airy soil, in which water and oxygen can be absorbed well. Don't forget that ants are eaten by all kinds of animals, such as some garden birds .

Ants are known to 'milk' aphids for their sweet honeydew and can counteract natural aphid fighters. So if you have a lot of aphids in your garden, it might be a good idea to check if there are a lot of ants nearby. Enough variety in plants can also limit the damage caused by aphids. If they nest in pots, the root ball can suffer somewhat, but this is not always the case.

Here you often find ants. If you experience a lot of nuisance from this, you can use the methods below.

Anthills in your lawn can be inconvenient, especially with tall grass, but they do not cause any damage. Therefore, consider whether you really need to combat them. If you do, you can cut the grass short and use nematodes, which tackle the ant nest at the source. Read more about the use of nematodes in this article on biological ant control .

Ants can nest under tiles and are unlikely to cause damage there. You can limit or even prevent nuisance around food areas on your patio by quickly cleaning up spilled drinks and crumbs: ants pass on food finds to the rest of the nest, so they can get to work cleaning up. The nuisance often occurs when they go inside for food, if that is the case you can also combat ants indoors without poison .

If ants nest in a plant pot, your plant can sometimes suffer. You can encourage ants to move to another location by watering the plant regularly. This lets them know that this pot is not the best place to make a nest. They prefer dry environments. They will then eventually take their eggs to another location. It is best not to completely submerge the plant pot in water, as this can kill the ants.

To prevent ants from nesting in pots, you can put some sheep's wool on the bottom of the pot over the drainage hole, for example in the form of wool cloth . Excess water can then be washed away, but the ants will not enter the pot.

If ants nest in your compost bin , they are unlikely to cause any damage, so consider just letting them do their thing. If you do have problems with ants in your compost bin, there are three things you can do:

Turn the compost now and then: the eggs will lie on the surface and birds and other garden animals, such as soil animals , can eat them.
Add water to your compost occasionally or put a lid on the compost bin. The conditions in the pile are no longer dry but moist, something ants do not like.
Cover your compost bin. It will get warmer in the compost bin and ants don't like that either, and will seek refuge elsewhere.

Tip!