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I had a large anthill in my allotment and was nervous of disturbing it. I followed some advice I found on an American site, which was to scatter instant cereal where the ants would find it. The thinking behind this was that the ants would give this food to the queen, and once she ate it the cereal would expand within her abdomen, killing her, and the rest of the hive would then die. I tried Tesco’s flavoured cous-cous, since I already had a mix at home, sprinkling it liberally around near the anthill. Within a day there was markedly less ant activity and after two days I dug up the anthill without difficulty. These were black ants, so obviously there was less risk to life and limb, but it does seem to have worked and might be worth trying with your red ants. It’s easy, you don’t need to use toxic materials on your plot, and if it doesn’t work for you, all you’ve lost is a packet of instant cous-cous.
I have also found advice on another method which is a bit more macho and risky. It is: find two anthills near one another, find a buddy, station your buddy by one anthill while you stand at the other. At a prearranged signal you each take a spadeful of ant nest and run like hell to the other person’s anthill to drop it there, in other words you exchange two spadefuls of earth and you mix the anthills. In theory the ants will fight to the death against the invaders. I don’t know anyone who has ever tried this, but if you’re brave it’s another cheap and non-toxic method. I would try the instant cereal first – much less scary! Good luck!!!!!