how to get rid of red ant nests? last summer they were all over the garden, and we had a few nasty bites or stings from them, kids could not run around barefooted, help!

You could try using a nematode called Steinernema feltiae. Can't comment on it's effectiveness but I'd say it's worth a shot.

http://buzzorganics.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=167

I don't know about the red ants in the UK. But here, if you use a mixture of icing sugar and borax (about 4 parts sugar to 1 part borax) and put that somewhere near the ants nest, the ants will find it and take the sugar and borax mix back to the nest. They will then feed it to the queen and eat it themselves. The borax in the mix will kill the whole nest.

There are ant killing products on the shelves of garden centers. I don't to use like chemicals like this but sometimes needs must.

I had this problem last year too and I took some advice from Alan Titchmarsh's book where he said to flood out the nest with water a few times and the ants, who don't like the disruption, would move. It seemed to work too. Our nest appeared right in the middle of the lawn where I'd pulled out some dock weeds and it looked like a mini mole-hill it was quite impressive! I stuck the hose in and turned it on until the water was running away from the hole (about 10 mins) and then did this every 3 days for a week and a bit. I may find that they've moved somewhere else on my garden but touch wood I haven't seen any.