Huge ant colony in lawn

19 years ago

I tried this question over in the lawn forum but only got some information about Fireant bait. Can anyone here recommend some more balanced approaches before I pull out the big guns?

My front lawn is dry partial shade (ash street trees on the boulevard) and so already challenged for grass.

I have a huge ant colony on part of it. It's about 5x4 foot in size. The holes are quite large (no little piles of sand) and the ants are medium size black (not carpenter ants, but bigger than the tiny ants you might find in a house).

The ground is so thoroughly used as a colony that, when standing on the lawn, you actually sink. I can stick my finger all the way into the soil without much effort. I guess the reason that this colony doesn't have those little tell-tale piles of sand is that the entire thing has turned to sand. It's the only ant colony or this type I have, so they are keeping to one spot.

I don't suppose the ants there bother anyone (it's about 15 feet from doors and windows, and I have a raised poured foundation, so I'm not really worried about them getting into the house - yet) but by mid-summer that area is a sandbox and the grass gone. I did overseed with some success last fall but the new grass is very sparse and I doubt it'll make it through a drought.

How should I handle this? Will keep the area moist discourage this thing from getting worse? Should I dig the whole thing up and try to find the queen (which I once did, by accident, in my former garden), is there some alternate ground cover that would disguise the nest, should I bring in the heavy guns and annihilate the colony?

This house is new to me and I don't know how long this colony has been here.

Featured Answer

ofionnachta

19 years ago

We had a similar problem when we bought our house-- not 5 x 4', but here & there, about a foot across areas where there was nothing but ants & sand, and you fell in if you walked there. They were not fire ants; we don't live that far south.
I bought a little canister of Ortho stuff, which I think was Sevin, which I now know is very toxic but I sprinkled it very selectively and lightly right into the holes the ants were coming in & out of. It killed them quickly & I have only ever sprinkled it right into their holes, not all over the grass.
I have nothing against critters living in my lawn generally, but places where you could break an ankle is where we had to draw a line. We had little kids, and elderly inlaws coming to visit, who walked in the yard.
Nowadays I would mix up half sugar & half 20 Mule Team Borax, and sprinkle that down their entry holes. It works pretty well along the edge of the counter backsplash in the kitchen!

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Comments (12)

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
19 years ago
chris, you might try to find an ant bait with Spinosad as the active ingredient. Many different companies are now making their own version of this 'organic' pesticide. It is very successful for the control of fire ants, but also works on other ants, as well.

Ant BAITS are more effective in solving the problem than hazardous contact pesticides, since the insects take the bits down into the feeding chambers where it is eventually distributed to all of the inhabitants. Spinosad will not be an 'instant' kill, but a thorough one. It is safe to use around children , pets, birds, etc.
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smikes1031
19 years ago
I second the post about baits.

If you would need an instant kill, however, Triazicide has worked well for me, and it lasts a while to get others that come back (I usually find an app. lasts several weeks, if not months, depending on rainfall).
Kimmsr
19 years ago
The ants are there because they habitat is a good one for them. There is lots of food, water, and shelter available to them there. You can treat the symptom of the problem, a large ant population, with poisons but they most likely will not eliminate the problem. Look around to find out why tey ants find that area so attractive and eliminate those reasons for them being there and tghey will move on. A very dry soil is one reason they nest there.
soupster
19 years ago
I too had this problem inside and out side. With a new born I could not use the chemicals. I went with this http://www.antcafe.com/GAB%20Liquid.htm both inside bait staions and the larger green orb stations outside and in about 1 week they were gone. They colonony of carpenter ants was located in a garden outside . I came upon it by flipping a rock over and there were thousands of them. They are all gone now.
chris_ont
Original Author
19 years ago
I found a product called "Insectigone" Ant Killer by Chemfree. It seems to be mostly diatomaceous earth and a bait. Does anyone have any experience with using diatomaceous earth for ants?
Kapoole_bellsouth_net
15 years ago
I'm having the same problem. There is no visible mound-but I have soft areas in the yard. The ants are going into a hole in the firewall of my fireplace, wrapping around my house, and into my trash cans. Ant bait only gets them 're-routing. I can't detect a specific entrance.....but several branches/lines of marching fire ants.
HELP!!!
Germaine Riendeau
11 years ago
Our front yard its full of ants, need help to get rid of those,
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
hire a professional .. or go to a good nursery and buy a bag of ant stuff to apply to your lawn like fertilizer ...

it would be very helpful if you tell us where you are ...

and next time.. start your own post ... as apparently you did not find any of the above helpful ... so why resurrect it???

ken
kimmq
11 years ago
Ants play an important role in our world so "getting rid of them" may not be necessary. Understand the role they play, why they are here, and learn when to live with them and when they may need some means of control.

kimmq is kimmsr
zzackey
11 years ago
It's hard for me to believe you have fire ants that far north.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Zzackey, the OP never said that fire ants were the problem. It gets confusing when such an old post is resurrected, I know.