Ants Are In My Compost Pile. Should I Kill The Ants And If So How?
I have leaves, sticks and grass in my compost. I turned the pile with my hands and ants were all over me. They bit me and really hurt too. Very aggressive small ants that are kind of reddish in color.
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They sound like fire ants. I’d buy a pitch fork to do the turning, but I wouldn’t kill the ants. They will eat the debrie you put in the compost and their poop will be good composite. But that’s just me. Live and let live. They have a reason for being, their part of the food chain, and the’ll find somewhere to be, where you might find to be worse off than where they are.
They do sound like fire ants, and anywhere in US they are nothing more than an invasive foreign species. They are also dangerous to livestock, pets and people because of their aggressive behavior and the poison contained in their bite. Like a bee sting, fire ant bites can eventually trigger anaphalactic(sic) shock in sensitive people/animals. However the previous post is right, to disturb/dig up yourself would probably only move or worse yet split up the nest. Call an exterminator!