Giant ant hills & blk. slugs - Good or Bad?

New to the area - we live on Vashon & have a couple of HUGE anthills on the property. They're not near the house, but I'm wondering if they're dangerous or if I can just "live & let live". Also, I've been told banana slugs are not destructive, but how about the wide, black ones? Thanks!

I pour boiling water over our ant hills and ant nests. Just because I don't want them crawling on me when I'm working in that soil!

We have so many slugs, I have no idea which are destructive and which aren't. To be honest, I never knew there were nondestructive types!

Welcome to the PNW. We're going to be having a couple of round ups, one in June and one in July, so if you go over to the RU forum, you can read about them and see if you'd like to join us.

Gwen

Welcome goatfarm, and do you have goats by the way?

If you're not going to be working near the ants I'd leave them alone, as part of the ecosystem. Unless they're black carpenter ants, then I'd call the Orkin Man. Have you seen the ants at all?

We had carpenters at our last house. Rivers of them streamed out of their nest at night to devour our pool house/storage building. Regular treatments kept them to a minimum, but you don't want to mess with them devouring the wood of your house.

The black slugs mystify me. I have orangey brown, grayish brown, and tan with black spots ones ( particularly bad on plants) Rarely do I find a banana slug in the gardens. But I've not seen a pure black slug around here. I would assume it's going to eat something you want to grow, so I'd dispatch of any you find, until you learn otherwise.

Enjoy Vashon- a beautiful place.

The banana slugs (yellow and fairly large, generally forest dwelling slugs) are native to this continent. They are adapted to eat the native forest vegetation and are not overly attracted to domesticated garden plants. All the other ones, brown, black and spotted, are from Europe and prefer to eat the things we plant in our gardens. I find that these slugs really love my vegetables over all else and do not bother my ornamentals much, except for a few things like hostas and violas. They can wipe out whole sections of newly planted lettuces, chew unsightly holes in the bok choy, but are not so terrible as the plants get larger if I use sluggo to keep the population somewhat in check. The occasional banana slug wanders into my garden from the adjacent forest, I've seen them hanging out in cool wet places, but never on a plant actually devouring its foliage.
I think the large ant hills are probably not harmful unlesss they are in your way. They are probably smaller ants, not the large black carpenters which like to nest close to or in your house. Its worth it to take a look and see who is coming and going from the hill and what they appear to be up to.
Did you just move to Vashon? I see you mention you are new to the area. I've been on Vashon for about 15 years. Welcome!

Mauryhillfarm speaks the truth about banana slugs and ants. The ants you have will not bother you unless you mess up their nest. They are valuable food for birds. Flickers love them.
Banana slugs are very cool and will not bother your garden. They are large and yellow, sometimes with brown spots. They only tangentially look like the hideous European beasts that destroy gardens. The best way to handle them for me is to begin applying safe slug bait very early in the season and to apply it 2-3 times a week until the population is under control. It's a lot of applying as I have a LOT of garden. But it's the only way. I apply the bait to the crown of hostas before they really start leafing out. The directions say not to apply to the plant, but I have found that slugs like to live down in the crown of the hosta and never even are tempted by the bait I put around them.
My second line of defense is a pair of scissors which I use with impunity as I garden. But applying the bait early and regularly has finally allowed me to have hostas with lovely leaves this year!
Welcome to the northwest. Now, let us know when you encounter the evil black vine weevil, which will eat the roots of your plants (especially those in the rhododendron family, but not limited to those by any means), and will munch notches around the edges of your leaves. It's the only thing that drives me to use inorganic means of control.

PIXY,
DANG, you guys play ROUGH in the FAKE Lakewood. Scissors are SO VIOLENT!! hehehehe. I still like the scream the slug emits, and to see them twist their little bodies around when they are coated with a few granules of sodium chloride!! hehehe

We mean business here. No faking that!

Thanks for all the responses! I much prefer to leave all the little buggers alone unless they are absolutely destroying massive amounts. The ant hills aren't close to the house, so I will just stay away from them, & the slugs I come across I just toss into the woods. Just REEAALLY don't want to kill unless I have to! (this philosophy does NOT apply to anything attacking me or my animals, like mosquitos, fleas, ticks, etc. I figure they started it!) Now if only I can find a landscape designer, I will totally be in heaven! This is the GREATEST place for gardening I could imagine!

You know, you would have plenty of landscape design expertise right here on Dave's garden for free. What are you looking to do? You are right, this is gardener's paradise (unless the rain never stops for summer, like last year. then you'll be fighting mildew and blackspot with the rest of us).

I need to hire someone to design & implement (dig beds, install pond, etc.) - all the heavy stuff. I want to do all the planting myself. Our place is gorgeous, 10 acres, (mostly woods), but previous owners were NOT gardeners! Can you imagine - not a single garden bed?! I've "found" - buried in weeds - a butterfly bush, 3 rose bushes, and an amazing rhodie. That's it. I know the elements I want, just don't have the strength to put 'em in place!

Oh, you need a team of laborers! I thought you were looking for some design ideas. Wow! 10 acres is a large piece of land. BTW, it's possible that the previous owners didn't plant the butterfly bush. The seed really , really easily here. That's why you see so many of them along the road. I'd love to see photos of your place.

All this chit chat and I still didn't read anything about goats!!!! Do you, or don't you have goats?? LOL