Ants, why dont people like them?

[troyka]

ive often wondered why people kill ants, those that do just tell me they are a pest, which isnt a good answer.
whats wrong with ants? why are they a pest?

[Nicos]

It depends where they are surely?
In the house/kitchen? Nope- Not the place to be.
In the garden/plot?- yep- why not leave them be?
( they are also a brilliant indicator of where there's an infestation of greenfly/blackfly!)

[Matt94]

have you ever been bitten by an ant? if you have you will know why people hate them!

anyway i dont like them - but i rarely put powder down!

[Alison]

Have loads on the plot and they don't bother me at all. My nan used to get them in the kitchen loads and that wasn't pleasant, they got into all the nooks and crannies.

[Bren In Pots]

When we first moved into this house we woke up to ants in the kitchen they were in the cereal boxes and over every surface not a pretty sight.
So I'm with Nicos those outside I leave be but I won't have them indoors.

[veggiechicken]

I'm the same as Bren & Nicos ^^^^^ so I shan't be voting.

[taff]

I dont mind them under slabs in the garden but not in greenhouse, or farming aphids on my veg.

[mothhawk]

They are a pain when they're farming blackfly on the veg and flowers, but I've found that in the dalek they're great! Why? Because they scoff all the larvae of those horrible little fruit flies that rise up in clouds when you take off the lid. Since I've had ants in there, I've had hardly any fruit flies.

[eirish]

Bit of a childhood trauma involving a game of kickball and an ant bite. Also several kitchen infestations. I'm fine with them outdoors as long as they're not biting me or herding aphids.

[troyka]

i once sat on a tiny ant nest in a park, while having lunch, it did hurt a lot. Ive not had more than the occasional ant in the house, i normally deposit them back outside, i guess indoors i wouldn't want them but outside they seem happy to run round doing ant things and playing "kings of the wild frontier" till all hours of the night!

[Feral007]

There are massess of ants nests around the farm. It's the one near the front gate and the one in the house yard that I can't cope with.

If they were 'just ants' it's not so bad. Green ants are nasty and are very very painful when they bite. Then we have Jumping ants, oh man they are so nasty it's not funny. They will jump up and grab you and if you try to shake them off they just hold on tighter. And one or two of the bites will make you quite groggy and feel like you have the flu for several hours. Not nice at all! So them I don't like. I don't like to pull up a handful of grass along with a handful of them. I don't like them biting my dogs.

I'd like a choice of ants thanks. The reason I don't chase out the ants from my house yard is that the presence of ants is a deterrent for white ants which also abound here. You can be busy paying your house off while white ants are eating it. And then have to get a new one!

There is a species of ant round here (that does turn up in houses from time to time) and I swear they are the size of greyhounds. They are massive, but TG they don't seem to be as aggressive as the other two I've mentioned.

It is a good idea to check the ground before you make your horse stand still tho.

[RedThorn]

As feral said, depends on the ant species

As a kid I dug up a nest of fire ants... OMG! also we had termites/white ants eating houses and trees... and Matabele ants... they just like you see in documentaries walking in wide columns for as far as the eye could see with the soldiers patrolling the outside of the column and big as 'eck and stink and are noisy and bite like you do not want to believe. on the other hand, I used to love watching a leaf cutter species at work, they were great.

[mothhawk]

have you ever been bitten by an ant? if you have you will know why people hate them! ...

Yes, but that's no reason to destroy them, if they are not in an inappropriate place. I've been stung by a bee, too, but don't want them dead either.

[mothhawk]

As for you Aussies, well, if you will live in a country with the world's strangest and most deadly fauna, what can you expect?

Most British ants are but 5mm long, with queens double that. Fairly innocuous stuff compared to yours.

edit: remove an extraneous zero in the size there!

[RedThorn]

Here's a link for ya

Matabele ants vs termite soldiers - YouTube