Ant hills

amstel2

Hello

Last couple of years have had a prob with Ants in the garden. They where in one spot & seemed to create a large bump in the soil. Also this area seems to have beome bare of grass. It has recovered a bit in the Autumn/Winter but come Spring they returned & started again. I have tried Miracle Grow Patch Magic but that didn't seem to work.

However, this summer they seem to have to have abandoned their usual part of the garden & seem to have moved to other parts. I have counted 3 patches they seem to be starting on where the grass is starting to go.

Can anyone advise how to get rid of them & stop them coming back. Also what is the best way to restore the grass where they have been.

I have also noticed more birds on the lawn. I presume they are feeding on the Ants. Are these Ants different from ones you can get in the house.

Thanks

Farway

Ants like dry soil, unless you wish to poison them watering may deter them

Personally I am in the live and let live camp

pendragon_arther

I used to dig them up and transfer them to the compost bin which speeded up the decomposting process, although a kettle of boiling water will commit genocide which I've done too. You can patch up either with grass seed or turf.

amstel2

Thanks for the info.

I have already thought about soaking the nests in boiling water but won’t this also kill the grass.

I can’t just leave them as I can’t let the kids play on the grass in case they get bitten or bring them into the house. Also if I leave them won’t they just spread even more & destroy the lawn. So is their anything I can get that kills them & keeps them away that won’t harm anything else.

Thanks

Evil_Olive

Hi amstel2,

There's really no need to worry about the kids - black garden ants do not bite. Red ants do, but only rarely - if they are provoked or their nest is disturbed - usually you'd have to pretty much sit down heavily on a nest and stay there for that to happen. And the level of toxin in their bite is much, much lower than bees or wasps, so, unless you are specifically allergic to the chemical in the bite (formic acid), you'll only get a faint pink mark which isn't particularly irritating and is not at all poisonous.

Yes, they are the same ants you get in the house, but ants in the house are only a problem if they find a way in by themselves looking for food and find it, at which point they tell all their little anty friends back at the nest who then invade. A few lone ants brought in by accident on your kids shoes will just be a little confused and will probably wander about till they either die of starvation or find their way out again.

As pendragon_arther says, they are very useful in a compost bin but I do sympathise with your lawn situation - my garden was over-run with black ants when I moved in here and had turned it into an undulating series of mini hills and valleys with bare patches all over - very uncomfortable to sit on - I counted what seemed to be over 25 seperate nests and it's not a large garden.
I had to take steps to get rid of most of them but 2 or 3 I would probably ignore unless they were building a nest right under a favourite plant as they can damage the roots with their tunnelling if it's a small plant or a big nest.

Just use whatever method to get rid of any in the lawn and stop the number of nests increasing too much and you should be fine

There's some really useful info on the Royal Horticultural Society's web site here:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=503

It seems to suggest that trying too hard to get rid of them can actually make the problem worse.

They might be attracted by dry soil as Farway says. The soil underneath the grass is often very dry on old, established lawns that either haven't been well cared for or are walked on a lot as the soil gets compacted and doesn't soak up moisture very well. You can help this by 'aerating' it once every 2 or 3 years. This is just spiking your garden fork down into it all over to a depth of 4-6 inches, with the holes 4-6 inches apart to let air and water down into the soil under the grass mat. If you want to do a really good job, you can also brush builders sharp sand over the lawn and into the holes immediately afterwards with a garden broom. It's usually done in September, to give the lawn time to recover before the winter, and made a massive difference to my sorry lawn - saved me from having to dig the whole lot up and start again.

MoneyMate

Two years ago we moved into our current house, the garden lawn was very uneven due to ant nests destroying the grass, it looked like the ants nests were always on the high points of the grass as it sloped badly and was far from level.
This year May I have completely Rotavated and levelled as much as possible reseeding to make a new lawn, so far very few nest have surfaced.
I have treated any large numbers of ants with Home Defence Ant Stop! Granules, CLASSIC, 1, Kills ants and their nests in just one application so they say,
Easy to use - no dust, no mess
Natural active ingredient
Offers a versatile solution: can be used on surfaces where ants are active both indoors and outdoors or diluted in water and applied to nests
The shaker pack makes it easy to apply.
So far working well. :beer:

charliedog000

I've had a problem with ants in the past week. They were getting into the house and driving me insane! For 2 consecutive mornings I woke up to them all over the place in the dining room and kitchen.


I did lots of research on the internet; found the product I wanted and ordered it. Only problem was I had to wait over the weekend for it to arrive. I bought some "Raid" from Tesco to try in the meantime, and to be fair it worked to some degree. I put it down about 7pm (both the spray and powder outside) and woke up to no ants the following morning. Thing is, it's meant to be effective for 4 weeks. Following night they were back. Re-applied "Raid" and woke up the following morning to nothing again


On Monday of this week (Saturday morning now) my product arrived. It's called NIPPON ANT KILLER LIQUID. I followed the instructions putting a blob on a 2p coin where I'd seen the ants running. Within 15 minutes (put it down about 8pm) the coin was full of ants - the thing is to leave them eating it - don't kill them. I went to bed at 10pm with ants in the dining room eating the NIPPON. Honestly, I've only applied it once, I picked the coin up on Tuesday morning and I've not seen one single ant in the last 4 days. HURRAH!!!


I'll never be without it again. You can get in on Amazon I think; but I got mine on eBay £2.49


Hope this helps someone


Charlie

MollyDolly

I have red ants all over my allotment, but despite the odd bite, I don't mind them as they tend to go for aphids - particularly on the broad beans and sunflowers. They have set up camp in all 10 of my raised beds and in the grass. If you disturb them often enough they will up sticks to somewhere else - but don't pour boiling water over them as they play a healthy part in the cycle of the garden - they are also great for breaking up clay soil.:)