permaculture

[Marsha Hanzi <hanzibra@svn.com.br>]

I get ants in my compost when it gets too dry-- rather nasty big biting ones 
that hurt
much like a bee sting...They are also found in rotting trunks. By the way, 
those "fire
ants" seem to be native from here in Brazil, but no one ever mentions them 
here ( maybe
that's because you guys don`t know about the OTHER ones!)  What are their 
Latin names?
Here in Brazil, ants control ants, and the Kayapo Indians provoke   warfare 
dumping
buckets of ants into mounds of other types of ants...  Also, here, as well, 
using large
quantities of mulch and a heavy tree element keeps the system balanced and we 
see no
sign of ants of any kind, unless the system starts drying out...

Marsha

April Sampson-Kelly escreveu:

> DONT GET RID OF YOUR ANTS YET!!
> ants make ideal seed raising compost.  Especially termites, but you don't
> want them
> so red ants are a great substitute, can you plan to move the compost heap
> instead?
> or simply start the next pile (rotating compost piles is the ultimate laxy
> method,
> you don't have to turn the piles (the temperature doesn't have to get high)
> and eventually
> compost occurs - in addition to this you get to prepare the area for
> seedlings,
> each old compost pile is an ideal growing space for you seedlings.
> If you really want to get rid of ants the permaculture way, let your
> chickens eat them.
> April
>
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> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: cath Gorrie [mailto:c.gorrie@unsw.edu.au]
> > Sent: Monday, 8 March 1999 4:00
> > To: permaculture
> > Subject: [permaculture] Ants in the compost
> >
> >
> > I inadvertantly threw the beginnings of a red ant colony into my compost
> > pile, before covering it and leaving it for a few weeks.
> > Now I have a thriving growing colony. I'm not quite sure how to deal with
> > this, on the one hand I guess they will breakdown all
> > organic material, on the other hand I don't need an ant hill for
> > a compost
> > pile. Possibly it just needs to be hotter (the compost isn't yet)
> >  and the problem will go away, or maybe there's some natural ant
> > deterrant
> > I can use that won't affect the compost material.
> >
> > Any thoughts would be appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Cathy Gorrie
> > Katoomba, NSW
> > Australia
> >
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