Soil acidity over anthills?

Question

I have read in an old text that chicory will have pink flowers over an anthill, because of the acidity from the ants - is the soil acidity actually different? Does anyone know?

Oh dear, I thought this might be a hard one, may have to get a soil test kit and find out the hard way.

I asked this question in another area as well, someone told me that the answer was yes, and gave a link to a scientific paper. I gave the answerer the best answer points, but when I read the paper they had actually tested pH and found no significant difference. Further exploration has shown that some researchers have found acidity change, some found alkalinity change and some found no change. Maybe it depends on your ants. Thankyou for trying, I will go out and test my ants in my soil.

Answer 1

Some studies show that there is an increase is organic matter on the anthills but no change is soil pH. Other studies have shown an increase in pH, which would mean that soil on anthills was less acid. Maybe the color change was due to increased alkalinity or from another reason altogether.