When In Doubt Call A Professional Ant Exterminator
Of course, the easiest way to get rid of ants in your lawn is to call a professional ant control expert. Depending on the type of ants living in your backyard, the exterminator may use one or several methods of ant extermination, choosing the most effective and least damaging treatment options. By calling an expert, you can minimize damage to your lawn, remove ant mounds in record time, and enjoy your lawn all summer long. Call Antworks today for an ant extermination quote!
How To Get Rid Of Ants In The House
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An ant infestation isn’t the worst pest problem in the world, since most species of ant commonly found in the home do no real damage. The good news is that out of more than 1,000 or so classified species of ants in North America, only a few species are likely to take shelter in homes, and even fewer are likely to sting or cause damage. The vast majority of ant species are garden dwellers that do more good than harmsuch as aerating soil or controlling damaging pests such as aphids.
But ants roaming around inside the home are annoying, and they can sometimes spread unwanted bacteria. Varieties commonly known as carpenter ants can cause damage by burrowing through wood structural elements of the home.
Are Some Ants Good For Your Lawn And Garden
Most of the ants are not a potential threat to your lawn. Anthills or mounds can be a cause of nuisance but in return, some ants help in soil aeration, pollination, seed dispersal, and protect your lawn from aphids. Ants eat up aphids, bugs, and other pests that can harm your lawn or garden. Ants facilitate the redistribution of nutrients in the soil, act as scavengers and decompose dead material and insects into fertilizer which helps in plant growth.
They patrol all over your lawn and protect your vegetation from plant-eating insects. They also help in flowering by eating the sticky outer layer around the buds which is a great food source for ants. However, keep an eye on the ant colonies in your lawn because established larger ant colonies can do more harm than help.
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How To Control Ants In Your Lawn
Im all for nurturing a healthy ecosystem, but sometimes you dont want to have an ecosystem crawling all over your picnic and up the leg of your shorts. In this blog, were looking at ways of controlling ants in your lawn.
Ants are amazing little creatures. They have truly sophisticated societies and are just as well organised and as busy as bees are.
In the garden, ants help to aerate the soil, to break down dead plant material and to eat pests such as mites and lava. They are fascinating insects and an important part of the ecosystem. But, as I said in the introduction, nobody welcomes an ecosystem invading their summer afternoon.
On a lawn, ants do very little direct damage. They dont seem to eat the grass or its roots. However, they do create ant hills. Mounds of earth that ruin the look of a lawn, make the surface uneven for mowing and potentially create areas of bare soil for weeds to colonise. For the most part, theyre a nuisance rather than a threat.
How To Get Rid Of Ant Hills In Your Lawn
The best way to get rid of ant hills in your lawn is to pour a lot of hot water into the entrance of the ants nests. This will kill all the ants inside the nest and stop them from forming any more hills in your yard. Be careful not to pour a lot of hot water on your grass as it will burn the foliage and leave your lawn with brown patches.
To effectively get rid of an ant hill, you first off have to properly understand its structure. The ant hill itself doesnt actually house these insects, as its simply a mound of soil particles that worker ants pile at the nests entrance as they dig networks of underground tunnels.
Therefore, if you try to address the issue by simply getting rid of the visible pile of soil, youll most likely end up frustrated once the ant hill crops back up again later on.
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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.
Lemons Or Lemon Juice
Not only will this kill any ants that come into contact with it when mixed with water, but it also deters them from ever coming back.
If youre wondering how to get rid of ants on your patio and keep them away, this is another great method.
Pour 1 part lemon juice into 5 parts water in your bowl/container. Mix together thoroughly with a spoon or fork and pour the mixture into a small cup or another container .
Carefully carry the liquid outside and walk around your patio until you find any ant mounds, trails, nests where theyre entering your patio, etc. Dip the tip of a spoon into your cup and touch just the very tip to an ant trail or mound, then take it back to your cup/container.
Repeat this till you have covered all the infected areas.
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How To Get Rid Of An Ant Hill: The Top 8 Best Methods
This page is an expert guide on removing ant hills from your property using the products and methods suggested by our experienced pest control specialists. Follow this guide and use the recommended products and we guarantee you will be successful in eliminating ant hills and the ant population.
Its not a big problem if the outdoor area of your house has a small number of ants, but in the event of massive infestation or if the ants start to creep into the interior of your house, you will have to take action.
Ants can multiply to large numbers and most of them hide away in an ant hill that may be on your property. Sometimes it’s easy to find an ant hill as it may appear on your lawn in the form of a large mound. Other times it can be harder to find because they are tucked away in a secluded corner of your home. Even worse, if you’re dealing with carpenter ants, the colony could be somewhere indoors, like a wall void or basement corner.
In this article, we will share with you 8 ways you can destroy an ant hill. These are a mixture of home remedies and the use of professional pesticides. Read on to learn how you can tackle an ant infestation on your property the right way.
Best Ant Killer For Lawns
- INSECT KILLER: Kills listed surface insects including grubs,…
- 3 MONTH PROTECTION: Kills listed soil insects for up to 3 months
- USE ON: Soil and turf lawns and around the home
- PLUS MOSQUITO KILLER: Kills mosquitos in addition to 30 other…
- COVERAGE AREA: Treats up to 5,334 square feet
The TERRO Ant Killer Dust can kill the ants instantly. Moreover, it provides long-lasting pests protection for up to 8 months. It comes with an advanced waterproof formula that will not wash out in the rain. The ant killer dust can be used for both indoor and outdoor pest control.
BioAdvance Fire Ant Killer Dust
No products found.
The BioAdvance Fire Ant Killer Dust is one of the best ways to get rid of the ants in your lawn. It has great potential to eradicate the entire ant colony right after contact. You can sprinkle it by using the applicator on top of the mounds or ant trails. The 16-ounce pack of ant killer can treat up to 130 mounds. No water is required to activate the insecticide powder.
Combat Max Ant Killer Gel is a strongly recommended ant killer for lawns and gardens. The easy to use gel can be injected near a hole and entry points of ants using the syringe. The gel can be used as bait to eradicate the entire ant colonies in 3 to 5 days. Its powerful formula has the potential to exterminate the ant colony within just hours.
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Borax Stops An Ant Infestation
Will Borax kill ants? Borax, or boric acid, is likely the most regularly used minerals to rid homes of an ant infestation. There are many ways to use it, all of which are impressively effective in ant control.
This white powder fights against cockroaches and termites as well. The Borax interferes with their digestive system and slowly kills them.
The workers that carry traces back to the ant nests take out other ants that come in contact with it. Even though it is toxic for most insects, Borax is low in toxicity against animals and humans.
Homemade Ant Killer Mix
Ants can be suffocated by pouring a mixture of cooking oil, dish soap, and water into the ant hill. To do this, mix 4 tablespoons of oil , 1 tablespoon of dish soap, and 8 cups of water together. Its best to whisk the oil and water to combine, then add the dish soap and stir. Next, pour this mixture directly into the top of the ant hill. The mixture of oil, soap, and water will suffocate ants on contact.
- Whisk together 4 tablespoons of cooking oil with 8 cups of room-temperature water.
- Add 1 tablespoon of dish soap to the oil and water and mix.
- Pour the mixture into the hole at the top of the ant mound.
- The oil and soap will cling to ants and suffocate them.
- Avoid using hot waterthis can damage your grass.
Some recipes may tell you to use hot water for this mixture. Avoid doing this. Hot or boiling water can kill grass. As long as you use room-temperature water, you wont harm your lawn. The oil and soap will kill quite a few ants and may even wipe out the entire colony.
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Chili Or Cayenne Pepper
To exterminate ants, surround the ant mound with chili or cayenne pepper.
Some homeowners mix chili or cayenne pepper with coffee grounds to make the repellent more efficient. But, the coffee grounds effectiveness in getting rid of ants is yet to be proven. While this is a natural alternative to repelling ants, avoid pets from digesting the pepper.
Chili or Cayenne pepper mixed with water repel ants. The mixture masks ants trail and can be poured inside the ant mound.
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What Is A Colony Of Ants
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not to fear the result of a hundred battles.
This quote may be a little over-dramatic, but it does help to know a little about the pest you wish to remove.
A colony of ants sometimes referred to as an ant society, is made up of thousands upon thousands of individual ants under the leadership of one queen. Other than the queen, there are also workers, soldiers and drones. Most species of ant build massive underground nests. These structures are incredibly complex and contain nursery rooms, farming rooms, food storage areas and even tunnels to control the airflow inside the nest.
We usually only see a few entrance mounds and small piles of fine dirt. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Researchers in Brazil unearthed an abandoned ant nest, which covered an area of 500 sq ft and was measured to a depth of 26 ft. While nests of this size are uncommon, it does illustrate the fact that ant nests are much larger than we may initially think.
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 you’ll 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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How To Kill Small Black Ants
The most effective way to kill small black ants is to use ant baits. These baits will need to be placed where the ants foraging trails have been seen and can be placed indoors or outdoors. When treating for small black ants inside, you will want to set the bait stations in corners next to baseboards, on countertops, and anywhere else they have been observed foraging.
When treating for these pests outside, you can place the bait stations near the nest for better results. Nests are often easy to locate. However, if you cant find the colony, the bait can also be placed in the path or near the foraging trails. Whether inside or out, the ants will take this bait back to the rest of the colony, and it will eventually kill off all of the ants.
You can rest assured that ants will always be around, but you dont have to accept having them in your lawn, garden, or house. It may take more work, but taking the time to execute a preventative plan against ants and other pests will be well worth the effort. Protecting your home and your family from the threat of an ant invasion is possible as long as you prepare ahead of time.
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Boiling Water To Kill Ants
If youre not interested in making ant bait or traps, there is a much faster way to kill an entire colony. This tactic is also a natural way to get rid of carpenter ants or pavement ants.
For every one cup of water, mix three tablespoons of Borax in a large pot and bring it to a boil. Dump the boiling water solution down the opening of all ant hills. The water rushes through the underground tunnels and helps eliminate your ant problem.
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What Do Ants Eat
What do ants eat? Ants are scavengers and will eat almost anything. They will consume anything sweet like nectar, sugar, honey. But will even eat meat and plant vegetation so can destroy your loved plants or vegetables. They consume moisture, usually from their food or from due on the leaves of plants.
Kicking Ants Out Permanently
The secret of success in controlling an ant infestation is locating and destroying the ant colony, says the Penn State Extension.
That includes killing the queen and her young.
Bachman, who also hosts the award-winning Southern Gardening TV program, recommends a broadcast bait application applied at intervals throughout the year across the entire lawn.
He uses holidays to mark application dates: Easter, Fourth of July and Labor Day. The application should keep the area clear of ants for about three months, he says.
Bachman applies the ant bait insecticide across his entire lawn.
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Borax Based Ant Killers
Borax and boric acid products were traditionally used as cleaning aids and as a cutting agent in many household products.
They are also useful in the war against ants, and they are now the base for many pesticides. Borax, a naturally occurring chemical compound, is incredibly toxic to bugs, plants, and fungi.
Effective against many ant species, it comes in powder form mixed with other ant attractant additives. This helps to mask it as a food source and encourage ants to ingest it.
