Why Do Ants Build Ant Hills
Ant hills also called ant mounds serve as an entrance and exit to the ground nest below the surface. When they dig into the ground or out from below, the extra dirt gets pushed onto the surface of your lawn, creating a small pile.
Additionally, ant hills can serve other functions. In some cases, the ant mound assists with ventilation and temperature control for the nest and offers some protection from the weather. At times, it may also help keep certain predators away, serving as a makeshift barrier.
Home Made Ant Killers
When it comes to killing off a nest, there are numerous home remedies that get recommended on the web. The problem is, they often dont work immediately, dont work at all, or have other side effects.
These include
Pour Boiling Water into an Ants Nest
This is the most widely known way to kill a nest. Simply find as many entrances as you can and pour boiling water into them.
The issue is that this
- Often takes several attempts
- This can result in wet, boggy areas in your lawn, and
- It can scald your grass causing it to turn brown
Use Dishwasher Liquid and Olive Oil
Another common method is to mix washing up liquid with olive oil and water. This penetrates the ants exoskeleton and suffocates it.
Again though, it can take a while to work and the detergent can bleach the grass, making it paler than the rest of the lawn.
Put Boric Acid and Sugar on Your Lawn
The idea behind using Boric Acid and sugar is that you mix it into a paste and put it on certain areas o of your lawn near the nest. The sweet sugar attracts the ants and they take it back to the nest for the colony to feed on. Then the Boric Acid kills the ants.
The problem with this approach is that it needs to be mixed very precisely. If you dont use enough Boric Acid, you wont kill the ants. Use too much and youll kill the ant that takes it before its reached the nest. Youll also kill the grass.
Pour White Vinegar Onto a Nest
Many people recommend pouring a litre of white vinegar onto an ants nest.
To Keep Ants Out Of Your Home Try These Techniques
- Baking soda. Mix equal parts baking soda and powdered sugar and place in a small lid or shallow container in the area where you’re seeing ants. When ants nibble baking soda, it reacts with an acidic material in their stomachs and kills them. This bait can help kill ants in the nest.
- Borax. Make a colony-killing bait by blending equal parts Borax and corn syrup. Smear on a small piece of cardboard or index card. Ants love corn syrup, and when they eat it, the Borax kills them.
- Diatomaceous earth . Sprinkle food-grade DE along ant trails. DE kills ants through dehydration. It affects only those ants that come into contact with it and has no effect on ants in the nest.
- Commercial bait. Most indoor ants like sweet food, which is commonly found in gel ant baits. Place gel in areas where ants are crawling. Squeeze gel into cracks, or place a pea-size amount onto a piece of masking tape to keep gel off surfaces. If you have children or pets, use gel only in areas they can’t reach. Fully enclosed plastic bait stations are a good choice for use around pets and kids, although some pups may try to chew them.
- Castile soap. Make a spray of 1/4-cup Castile liquid soap and 1 quart of water. This spray kills ants on contact. It’s effective against scout ants but wont kill ants back in the nest.
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What Are Ant Hills
Ant hills are mounds of dirt, they are of different sizes and can be found almost anywhere. The dirt from which ant hills are made can either be soft or hard and it is usually composed of soil, rock pebbles, sand, branches and more. Ant hills are an indicator of where the ants reside but they are hardly ever located on the top of the hill. Most of the ants are located below the surface level of the ant hill, while the queen usually lives in the deepest level.
How Do Ants Build an Ant Hill?
Ants have a very complicated system of tunnels in the ant hills. When ants build these tunnels they excavate and drag the dirt to the surface, and pile it there which in the end forms an anthill. This may seem random but these hills are strategic and have a few uses. The ant hill controls the internal temperature, acts as an entry point, and even protects them from predators. Basically, as the ants dig deeper, the dirt is taken back to the top and the hill gets bigger and bigger. The more complicated the system of tunnels they have the bigger is the ant hill.
How Deep are Ant Hills?
Ant hills can be quite deep, anywhere from 6 cm to 4 m or even more. The average backyard ant hill and its respective tunnel is around that size but as we will see later, there have been ant hills ant tunnels that are so deep that they look like cities. The depth of the ant hill is proportional to the time period of which that particular ant hill has existed there and to the type of the ant residing there.
Whats The Best Way To Kill Ant Hills
The best way to kill ant hills is by wiping out the whole colony. For this to happen, youll need to kill the queen ants, who usually reside two to three feet below the ground.
Why are there ant hills on my lawn?
Besides detracting from your lawns aesthetic appeal, these hills inhibit the growth of plants, interfere with mowing, and can result in indoor ant infestations. So how do you eliminate them? This article will equip you with all the information you need on how to get rid of ant hills: a variety of both chemical and natural solutions.
How often should i rak my Ant Hill?
For low populations, raking will be a regular maintenance for lawn care and ant hills. Simply raking out the hills will scatter the population and reduce hardened mounds from occurring. This simple step is effective if done on a weekly basis from fall to summer.
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Get Rid Of Anthills With Insecticides
Using TERRO T600 Ant Dust for getting rid of ants allows you to clear out the anthill. Apply this dust as you would the diatomaceous earth, as they are both the same consistency. Expose the inside of the anthill and pour the ant dust in, mixing it up with a shovel.
Another product that works great is the TERRO T300B Liquid Ant Killer. They come with 12 bait stations that attract ants. Once the ants eat the bait and take it back with them to the colony, they poison every ant that comes into contact with it.
If you are using the bait method, Texas A& Ms AgriLife Extension suggests leaving the bait out for three days to poison as many ants as possible. Then, pour boiling water over the mound to finish the job.
If youd like, take a look at our guide on the best overall ant traps for tiny ants here.
How Can You Find Ant Hills Outside
More often, these hills may be hidden somewhere one cannot easily notice, especially if many trees are planted in the yard. There exist many seamless ways of locating the ant hills in a lawn. For example, you can place a trap in sections where the presence of the ants has been noted. The trap is not to kill them, but to help guide you to where their home is.
For species that love sugary meals, you can trap them using tiny jelly pieces and a little peanut butter for ants with a protein preference. After picking the meal, keep an eye on the direction they go since they always take the meal to the hill. You will know where the hill is situated, although it requires much patience. Not all ants crawl on the ground. Some crawl on the wall, and thus, this may make it a little difficult to follow them.
Additionally, ants use the same path followed by their fellow ants. Therefore, if you notice a trail of ants, follow them to find their mound. After locating where the colony stays, now you can come up with plans of eradicating them.
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What Happens When You Destroy An Anthill
Youre playing interference if you knock an anthill down or level it. The ants will evacuate the nest temporarily and may return.
In most instances, if the anthill is destroyed, they will evacuate and build a new nest as soon as possible. Fire ants, for example, can build an entirely new anthill in a matter of days.
Ways To Get Rid Of Ants
The key first step in removing ants from the home is to identify the trails used by worker ants to move to and from the nest. Any visible ants moving inside your home are seeking food, and once they find edible material, the worker ant carries it back to the nest. By doing so, the ant leaves a chemical path, or trail, for its fellow worker ants to follow to collect more food.
This behavior is what makes it possible to combat ants, since you can now fool the worker ants into bringing some form of poisoned food back to the nest.
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Use Ant Baits Indoors
Avoid the temptation to simply use pesticides to spray visible ants marching along trails inside your home. Pesticide sprays can eliminate a few visible ants, but more will quickly replace them, and youll never make real progress to eliminating the infestation. Instead, use these worker ants as the ticket into the colony by placing ant killer for them to carry back to the hidden nest.
Ant baits are edible materials, usually sweet, sugary carbohydrates, mixed with substances that are toxic to ants but which have minimal toxicity to animals or humans. Some ant baits are primarily made from boric acid, a natural substance that is non-toxic to humans when used properly.
Ant baits can be stations containing granular materials or liquids that are sprayed onto surfaces. Whatever form of ant bait you use, try to place it close to visible ant trails but outside the reach of pets and children. The bait will work most effectively if you keep other surfaces clean so that the bait is the only sweet substance available to attract the ants.
The worker ants will carry the pesticide bait back to the nest, but it can take several days to eliminate the colony, or even a few weeks if the colony is very large or it has several queens, as some ant species do. You may even need to replace the bait station if the ants empty it. Gradually, though, you will see an end to the infestation.
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What Is The Best Way To Get Rid Of Ants
I have heard of a bunch of ideas when it comes to how to kill ant hills, everything from using Borax to hot pepper.
I have found that this one not only works best for us but doesnt seem to pose a lot of hazards to my family or my grass.
Many times, when chemicals are used on the lawn you need to stay off for several hours if not days. There is no downtime when this method for killing ant hills is used.
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What Attracts Ants To Your Lawn
Usually, ants nest in a lawn because it provides them with the three things they need most: food, water, and shelter. If a meal, drink, and suitable protection from the elements and predators arent available, ants will move on until they find a better spot.
When it comes to food sources, those can vary slightly depending on the ant species. However, other pests, trash, spilled food, vegetation, and similar items can all nourish many types of ants, so theyre the most common food sources that attract them.
Moisture can also come from a variety of places. Standing puddles, small ponds, leaking faucets, or any container that holds water are all viable for ants looking for a drink.
As for shelter, ants that build mounds mainly need soil. Usually, they favor lawns that remain reasonably dry and have solid drainage when looking for nesting locations. However, ample yard debris including overgrown plants or grass clippings can make your yard an attractive option.
Whats Eating My Grass
If you notice that your lawn appears to be attacked overnight, the usual culprits are cutworms, armyworms, and sod webworms.
These grubs tend to feed on grass leaves and come out at night, so you might notice patches in the morning from where theyve fed. There are grub-specific pesticides that can be used to treat them if theres an infestation.
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Using Sugar And Boric Acid On Your Lawn
Using sugar and Boric Acid on your lawn involves mixing the two to form a paste and putting the paste in certain areas of your lawn, preferably near the ant nest.
The sweetness in the sugar will attract the ants to it. These ants will take the sugar back to the nest as food for the rest of the colony. The Boric Acid in the mixture will kill the ants.
The disadvantage of using this approach is that the sugar and boric acid need to be mixed keenly. If you use less Boric Acid, you wont kill any ants.
On the other hand, if you use too much Boric acid, youll kill the first ant that takes it before its transported to the nest. Boric acid also damages the grass.
Why Do Ants Come Inside The House
There are many reasons ants will invade your home. They could be looking for food or water, or if there is rotting wood in your home, the ants may use it for habitat. Late spring and early summer are the most common times ants enter a home because thats when theyre most active. Ants and other insects can crawl through the tiniest crevices, so it is important to seal all doors and windows and cracks in your homes foundation. Also, to help prevent ants from coming inside your home, keep your kitchen spotless. Wipe countertops other surfaces with a citrus-scented spray citrus repels ants. Vacuum the kitchen floor frequently and be sure to properly seal and store all food in airtight containers. Dont leave pet food sitting out longer than necessary.
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Use Boric Acid And Sugar To Get Rid Of Anthills
Another easy way to get rid of ants from an anthill is to use boric acid and sugar. Please consult a professional before use and practice all safety information with boric acid as it toxic to humans.
Mixing a tablespoon of boric acid with one cup of sugar and a little water to make a paste can help get rid of anthills. You can put this paste around the anthill and ants will flock to the sugar for food and instead bring back poison to their colony.
Easy Ways To Repel Ants
To lower the chances of ants wandering indoors, follow these easy tips.
- Make a barrier. Place a substance that ants dislike along door thresholds, window ledges, baseboards anywhere ants might enter your home. Ants dislike cinnamon, cayenne pepper, ground chalk and cornmeal.
- Spritz vinegar. Fill a spray bottle with equal amounts common white vinegar and water. Spray where ants enter your home.
- Peel citrus. Save and dry citrus peels . Place dried peels in a food processor or grinder and pulse them into powder. Sprinkle powdered peels in areas where ants enter the home.
- Use oils. Essential oils including peppermint, tea tree and citrus types repel ants. Blend 1/4-cup of water with 7 drops of citrus oil or 15 drops of tea tree or peppermint oils. Shake well and spray along baseboards, windowsills or other places ants enter your home. Or place a few drops of orange, lemon or peppermint oil on cotton balls and tuck into cabinets or pantry areas to keep ants out.
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How Many Anthills Will Ants Create In My Yard
Ant colonies can grow to shocking numbers. Anthills will house anywhere from a couple of dozen to thousands of ants!
Some ant populations can grow into supercolonies. A supercolony is a community of nests and different queens all connected by worker ants that work together to hunt for food and build more tunnels.
There is a famous ant supercolony along the coast of California that is one web of ant communities stretching over 560 miles and housing hundreds of millions of ants! Can you imagine how complex that tunnel system must be?
Luckily, your house probably isnt the home of a major ant supercolony. You may have a network of several anthills in your yard, but it isnt too hard to fix!
If youre also finding that you have ants in your home and not just your yard, take a look at our guide on what to do if you find ants in your house before you have an infestation on both fronts.
How To Get Rid Of Large Ant Hills In Lawn
Getting rid of large ant mounds from your lawn is quite possible all you need is the right equipment to get it out.
Start by mowing down grass around the large ant mound, then create an ant bait around the mound and apply boric acid or any other insecticides. Dont forget the entrance! Leave the trap for a few days or a week. This will give it time to reach the queen. Finally, flatten the mound using a rake or a shovel.
Fortunately, getting rid of ant mounds in your lawn is not that difficult. Compared to other insects such as bed bugs, there are several impactful ways and products you can use to get rid of ant mounds in your lawn.
Once you figure out which method works best for you, be sure it will serve you for a very long time.
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