Red ants ruined my compost

1st time ever using a composter, ive spent months and months filling the thing only to go and use it today and find that ive got perfect compost ready to use but its heaving with red ants :( am truely gutted :(
is there anything i can do?

 

Not sure about red ants minxy but I have black ones in all of mine. There was a thread on it on here some time ago. I got the impression from it that they don't do much harm.
John

 

Minxycat2002

If you've made good compost first time with a composter, congratulations!

I presume you're going to dig in your compost or spread it as a mulch? If so, don't worry about those red ants one little bit. They'll be dispersed. I just wouldn't use the compost in containers or pots, because that would be recreating a nice warm home for the ants again. All manner of insects live in compost bins - I don't worry about any of 'em!

 

this is the problem, i wanted the compost for my potatoes which are in huge bins :( cant really use any of it for veggies can i, erghhh just so frustraiting.
i dont have large gardens hence why my veggies and fruits r grown in tubs ect, dont know what im going to do with this infested compost now :confused:

we seemed to get plagues by red ants every year, the same mound comes up by the childrens slide and 2 huge mounds in the front patch of grass, so i really dont want to spread remaining ant infested compost anywhere.

 

If you disturb the compost regularly and vigorously for a few days they will go. Also if you spray with water as well each time they won't like that. It's surprising how fast they can move their eggs etc, I had a large pot which was heaving with ants last night, I tipped it on it's side and sprayed it- no ants today!
Try to keep the compoist moist even in dry weather, it's the dryness that attracts them.

 

thankyou will do that, neighbour also told me to stick some onions in there to, will see if that helps