[Homegrown]

Hi There!
Wondering if anyone can help me?
I'm not sure if this is a problem but I've noticed there are alot of ants in my greenhouse. My gh is placed over a plot of land directly on the soil. The outisde of the greenhouse doesnt seem to have as many.
Right now, there are broccoli plants int he gh and they dont seem to be bothered by the ants. I also have sown some seeds in there last week..

Also - I am a bit leary of my plants becoming dependant on the greenhouse. I had hoped to have it over some plants until they were hardy enough to be fully exposed. DOn't know if I'm mollycoddling though> Any advice? I had a veg garden last year that did very poorly, so i thought this year with balancing the soil and adding a gh i might have better results?

Sorry for the novel! I dont know anyone IRL who gardens organically so you'll probably find me asking questions quite often!

TIA!

[Liparis]

in general, ants won't harm your plants. However, the could make sufficiently large nests with tunneling etc to greatly increase drainage and possibly undermine a plant to it's detriment. Having said that I've never had it happen. Are the ants red or black? Black ants are usually not too bad, although they can bite. Red ants, however can be nasty if disturbed and offer up very painful bites, they can be quite aggressive. Ants also have an annoying habit of protecting aphids and "farming" them for their sticky, sweet excrement.
Don't molly-coddle your plants, hardening off should take place as soon as the plants are ready for it. That depends on what they are.
Bill.

[Homegrown]

Thank you for the response and advice, Liparis!
I've been leaving the greenhouse wide open for a few nights in a row now and I'll remove it completely any day now. I def. dont want to molly-coddle the plants, but given the misfortunate series of events I had last year, I wanted to be cautious. Something came and ate ALL of my lettuce and carrot tops one night Might have been the same 'creature' who snipped my cala lily blooms as well, lol.

[Sarah Evans]

Glad to hear that you are willing to leave the ants to get on with life. Latest customer request was something to kill millipedes on her wall. Answer given was to educate that no need to use toxic chemicals as they do no harm. Either we will slowly educate or lose customers. Values over profit.

[nemo]

if you put a few table spoons of semolina un cooked in a few places inside your tunnel the worker ants will bring it to their queen she will eat it .it will swell up inside her and she will explode shortly after the ant colony will move out to find a new home
regards
nemo