[davethespread]

i opened my compost bin the other day and found a beautiful bronze slow worm

[jolly jen]

i too have ants in my black plastic compost bin ,,,they have made a lovely ants nest.
im not too worried about it until i want to use the compost,so will let them bee,
what im not happy about is the other ants nests i have in a old water storage tank, that i filled up with lovely stone free  bagged compost,ready to put my parsnips in.The ants have burried right underneath it and nested they ,i tryed flooding them out with the hose,i have now planted radishes in there,until my parsnips are redy to plant out...

[missycat]

I noticed several bees flying in and out of my leaf bin last week, when I looked in the bin a few days later I found this beautiful nest Apologies for blurred image I was taking it at arms length as I didn't want the bees to think I was threatening the nest.
Can anyone tell me...will the bees vacate at the end of the Summer/Autumn/next Spring or do they use the same nest for years?

[joshbuchan]

wow fantastic!!!! what a opatunity u have there!! 1st i would jsut leave them as they are, let them get bigger!! once they get to big they will swarm, try driving a cupple posts in the floor scatured around near them, they should land on it and within a 15 - 20 mins u will have 1000s on there, (this is when it gets abit crazy) walk over to them with a box and just hold it on the top of them, they will climb all up in the box, once u have most of the bees in the box, just plop it on a towl on the floor rap it up, jobs a gooden u got your swarm, then u can get a hive going!!! make your own huney!

but if u dnt want to make a hive, but also dnt want to harm then, then it would be best to call a sombody who will acutrly take the bees away n give them to sombody who wants a swarm.

i am starting to biuld my hive, cant wait to get my swarm!!!

[oldcow]

I would have never recognized them if I hadn't seen this thread a few days ago; but yesterday I moved a large pot from the place on the patio where I had put it a week ago; and underneath there was  a massive deposit of ants eggs, all heaped up, handfuls and handfuls of them! That sent the ants around in a frenzy, picking up the eggs and moving them in a hole between patio bricks that clearly was the entrance to their nest.
Eugh... It might be cruel, but I left the eggs exposed for a while to give the birds a chance and then flooded the whole thing, it was too gross...

[joshbuchan]

purfect, place to get them, just go and boil a kettle and pore it all doen the hole and on any that come out. i probly sound crewl but it will kil them much faster than any pesticide.

i no moving them would be the best methured, but this is going to be very hard, watch this vid to find out what they really get up to! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozkBd2p2piU

[SarahB]

Can anyone tell me...will the bees vacate at the end of the Summer/Autumn/next Spring or do they use the same nest for years?

Are they honey bees or bumble bees?  Bumbles build a fresh nest each year, honey bees tend to be more permanent.  It's probably bumbles though - max of about 250 in a colony, and they often build nests in banks, border soil etc.  We've got a nest between the walls of our garage at the moment.

[woodburner]

Definitely not honey bees, not even wild native ones. No use to a beekeeper. 

[missycat]

I will let the bees be There'll be(e) no shortage of pollinators on my plot this year.
But seriously...for me one of the great joys of allotmenteering is watching nature plant and animal, I'm constantly amazed by the ingenuity and resilience of life even the ants...I'd probably have a more productive plot though if I spent as much time digging and weeding as I do watching!!

[Carol]

Going back to the ants eggs, If I find any I always feed them to our fish, who absolutely love them.  I've got the nasty little red variety that always bite me - so I don't feel much guilt about limiting their numbers!