ANTS - Helpers or Hindrance

[Maggi Young]

Oh, dear, Ian and I, who so love our native hedgehogs, were thinking of offering a home to your pal, Spike, Fermi.... but perhaps , on seeing what Otto has to say, we had better not! He's very handsome, though, isn't he/she? 

[Joakim B]

Maggi since You do not have ants it might not be a problem. Just feed it with other things insteed.
Joakim

[Paul T]

Otto and Fermi,

OK, I'll accept that they are perhaps cooler from a distance.  Really enjoyed seeing one at a friend's place a year or two ago (I think I posted pics here somewhere), but yes the damage they do in the garden might not be my first choice of entertainment.    The darn blackbirds are quite bad enough.

[arillady]

I have a perennial problem with ants here and have used Ant Rid and the dusting powder - sometimes I think they just laugh at me. In summer the ants love the side of the cement path under the clotheline - glad no one sees my antics when hanging out the clothes.
We have an echidna that seems to come every so often - luckily I have not had it anywhere near the aril beds.
I don't really like to kill the ants as we have shingle back lizards too but I do not want them spreading any aphids - especially the horrid grey aphids that can colonise the bases of irises. One bed seem to have a diagonal ant trail over it.
At least we don''t have the argentine ants - I experienced them in New Orleans a few years ago ( a little while before the hurricane) while photographing a rose up close - I stood on a nest.  Nasty little critters! And the best remedy seems to be bleach for the bites.