Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Ants in the Worm Bin

I am risking the wrath of I know it is you, Ed a commenter by posting this, but it worked and no worms were harmed. A while back fire ants had set up a colony in my compost bin. I used diatomaceous earth to kill many of them. The rest moved. This weekend I discovered they had moved into my worm bin. I dusted the top with DE, but was afraid to disturb the bin contents too much. I have read that fire ants hate molasses and cinnamon and have tried both with limited success in evicting fire ants. This time I used both. A cheap bottle of cinnamon from the dollar store and a bottle of molasses were applied to the bin and watered in well. I am happy to report that the ants moved on. While, I know they will show up someplace else, I am happy they are gone from the compost pile and worm bin. I can use more direct methods outside of the bins. I want to harm as few the good bugs as possible. After the molasses and cinnamon, the worms looked particularly fat, active and healthy.

Worm poo is very good poo. I put rabbit poo in the worm bin along with kitchen scrap and the resulting castings are wonderful for plants. A tea made from these castings is a great foliar feed as well.

To read more about poo and guano check out these posts from Weed Wackin Wenches and Poor Richard's Almanac.

14 comments:

  1. Wow! Fire ants! I'm glad you got the problem under control, for now. I made a worm bin last year, but have yet to get my worms- maybe this spring. Happy gardening to you!

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  2. Tessa, Get some. You will love the castings and the ease of composting. Happy Gardening right back atcha

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  3. Maybe I can get Wing Nut to build me a worm bin for my b-day. Heck, I'll build it myself, just need her to bring home the worms!
    --Curmudgeon

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  4. Is there no end to your gardening talents? One day when we are chicken free once again, I will learn from you my friend.

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  5. Curmudgeon, You gotta get some worms. I have had them for about four years. You may want to take a look at the worm castings Wing Nut brought home. If you see little yellowish, tear drop shaped things in it. Those are worm eggs. You may have worms already.

    Foxy, I know several gardeners who have chickens. Maybe not completely free range. I intend to garden and have chickens. I want a chicken tractor. I love to teach gardening and will be happy to give you all the free advise you really could do without my friend:)

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  6. Hey Debbi, thanks for mentioning Poor Richard's Almanac! Worm bins are about the most fun you can have (if you don't count chickens), and as you say, the castings are THE best. But I'm shocked that the fire ants hate molasses! We don't have fire ants up here, but I thought ants loved sweet, sticky stuff. I hate molasses myself, so I'm glad to hear that someone finally found a good use for it!

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  7. I'd never heard of using either cinnamon or molases, I'll try those this year when the little buggers show up.
    OK, in your comment to Foxy, you mention a "chicken tractor"; what the devil is that???

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  8. Cinnamon! I knew I used something odd last year and it worked. Tried to figure out what it was. My poor brain came up with vinegar. No, I told myself, that's for dog urine. Thought of baking soda. No, that didn't sound right either. Tis cinnamon, so thank you for kicking it into my brain. As for poo, I don't worry. I have pets that provide enough poo for the gardens and I don't even have to touch it.
    Brenda

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  9. I'm glad that you got your ants to move on. Once they settle in they are hard to get rid of!

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  10. ofb, your welcome. I read someplace that it was sulfer content in the molasis, but who really knows.

    Nola, it is a long box that can be rolled or dragged from place to place in the yard. Kind of like a mobile chicken coop.

    Brenda, Glad to jog your memory.

    Shala, I found the moved ant pile in my walk way and took it out with orange oil.

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  11. Good for you. I wondered if it worked. I read about keeping the fire ants out of beehives with that mix and they claimed it worked. They pour the mixture around the base of the hives and have had success with the process.

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  12. Anna, I had heard of using the seperately, but never together.

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  13. That's one thing I don't miss about Texas Deb, fireants. I'm glad you were able to come up with something non-harmful for your wormbin to get rid of them.

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  14. Hi Racquel, They moved over to the carrot bed. So I hit them with insectacidal soap.

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