[Paul Canning]

Right, this morning Im up early and getting on with a few jobs including turning my compost bins in the garden. I have 2 plastic ones and my method is simply to move the whole heap to the side 3ft but I dig and loosen the soil its going to sit in first.

So Ive done that and moved the bin and have a nice pile about 3 foot high in bin 1 though the bottom 18inches as you can see in this pic


is nice and fine compost and looks ready to use, the upper 18 inches are already transferred to the bin again.

The thing is as you can see, the ready to use compost is full of ants which have broken it down nicely, heap 2 which is much smaller



has also got the same issue.



So, I don't mind the ants as some reading seems to indicate they are aerating the compost nicely but I don't like the idea of using the compost as is with ants in it so what do I do?

[JayG]

Ants hate being disturbed and will probably already be frantically rushing around trying to find a new home (if not, disturb them a bit more until they do - they don't like water either although you might not want to soak your compost if you are about to use it.)

If you knock the pile down then leave it while you go for a cuppa and a nice bacon sarnie the birds will no doubt enjoy dealing with any ant eggs they can find.

(Anyone feeling sorry for ants yet? I am!) 

[Paul Canning]

heh heh, I could let the chickens loose on them I guess but then ill be scraping compost up for days 

[lancashiregardeninggal]

Yesterday - I emptied out a lot of tubs from last year onto the flower beds and there were a lot of ants - I went to make a brew and when I looked back from the kitchen god knows how many birds were busy at the soil 

[compostqueen]

Ants apparently harvest aphids, so another helpful point about the busy ants 

[mumofstig]

helpful..................I don't think so!
they don't harvest ants, as in get rid of them............they milk them (like we do a cow) that's why they encourage aphids and even protect them when they can 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A4889451