Kitchen Garden Forum

I have a nest of ants in my polytunnel! Found them crawling all over my broad beans. Are they any harm, can I leave them alone? If not how can I get rid of them? All advice welcome!

I think they farm blackfly which, on broad beans, wouldn't be ideal. Best to nip the tops off the broad bean plants as soon as they set some pods to minimise blackfly action.

I had some problems with ants in my polytunnel and tried drowning them, but it never seemed to work. You can use ant killer, of course, but I think it's pretty toxic. The problem with ants – besides the farming aphids thing – is that they can destabilise the roots of plants but I think you would have to have a serious infestation for that. I'd just nip off the tops of the broad beans, flood the ants regularly and hope for the best!

If you want to get rid of them, you can probably buy some little square flat plastic things containing poison (I say probably, because we have them here). The ants go inside and eat the poison then take it back to the nest, which is eventually killed off.
That way, you're not spraying anything on the soil or your plants, and they're pretty safe for animals.

The best solution we've found for getting rid of ants is the Bait Station. It's a little black disc containing ant poison and it's very effective as the ants flock to it and take it back to their nest. We found that in the first few hours a positive army of ants appeared and we feared we would be overwhelmed by them but 24 hours later there was not a single ant to be seen. You can buy these Bait Stations in hardware shops such as Robert Dyas and probably garden centres. They come attached to a piece of cardboard and we now wouldn't be without one. They are so much easier to use than ant gel and powder.