Gardening Hacks: Expert Reveals How You Can Use Vinegar
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Animal populations, including those of insects, explode during the warmer months between April and July. Many people will celebrate this spring cornerstone while out in nature and amongst the pleasant weather. But ant hills pose more of an issue, as gardeners may find they erupt and scar regions of their well-cultivated lawns.
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.
What Ants Make Up An Ant Colony
All ants within a colony play an important role in bringing in food, protecting the nest and ensuing the colony is populated enough to last into the future.
In every colony there is a queen ant. She is responsible for laying all eggs for the colony, so that they will continue to survive and thrive into the future. The queen is located deep within the ant colony so that she is protected from any predators who try to get into the nest.
Male ants, also known as Drone ants, only have one job. This is to mate with the queen ant to ensure that the nest will continue to grow.
Female ants in the colony are responsible for building and maintaining underground tunnels and the nest itself. Other female ants will go beyond the nest to look for food, while others will protect the colony from other ant colonies.
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A Range Of Methods To Try
As you can see, there are many home remedies you can try to deter ants from making a home in your garden, and most of them are inexpensive and safe to use, even if you have kids or pets in your home.
As a last resort, you can turn to pesticides too but before doing so, you should also consider whether you really need to kill the ants at all or if you might be better off just leaving them in peace.
White Vinegar Is Safe To Grass But Can Kill Ants
White vinegar with five percent concentration and the distilled type can also exterminate ants without hurting the grass. Upon contact with the vinegar, the ants will be killed because they cannot tolerate its low-pH acidic components.
As you can see, there are many ways to exterminate ants in your lawn without hurting the beautiful grass. They also cost less than the ready-made ant repellants that are sold in the market.
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Killing Ants In Your Lawn
Several methods can be combined to kill ants.
The first is to go straight to the ants nests and break them open with a stick, once the nest is opened an Ant Dust can be put directly down the nest. This should be done with all nests.
An ideal Ant Dust is Fipronil, a 500g granular insecticide, which is a fast-acting, odourless product specifically formulated to control Ants. Fipronil is also safe to use on Zoysia, Kikuyu, Buffalo, and Couch grasses and can easily be applied by sprinkling over the area to be treated. Always read the label carefully before use.
Ants will survive and repopulate new nests, however, so the next method is to use a liquid Ant Poison.
This type of poison is then baited in small quantities at all locations around the property where ants are most active. The ants then take this liquid poison back to their nests, killing even more ants than would be achieved by other methods.
There are specialised liquid insecticides designed to offer superior control of insect pests such Ants in lawns. PCT Fivestar 1L contains the active ingredient Bifenthrin and is a suitable insecticide for Ant control whilst being safe to use on Zoysia, Kikuyu, Couch and Buffalo grasses.
Another effective liquid insecticide for Ant control that is suitable for use on Zoysia, Kikuyu, Couch and Buffalo grasses, is Indigo Rumbler 100SC 5L, which also contains the active ingredient Bifenthrin.
Why Ants Play An Important Role In Your Lawn
Ants and other insects play an important part in our lawns and our gardens ecosystem. In small numbers they can assist in creating a healthy soil by aerating the ground through underground tunnels. However, when large infestations of these critters start to appear, they can cause both cosmetic and root damage to your lawn.
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Cayenne Can Kill Ants
Cayenne is a potent agent against insects but will not harm grass. Get a whisk and mix three tablespoons of cayenne pepper sauce with 1 quart of water and ½ teaspoon of liquid dish soap in a bowl. Put this mixture in a spray bottle.
Locate the ant nest and spray generous amounts of this mixture. You can also pour some of it into the nest. The capsicum element in the cayenne sauce and the soap components are deadly to ants and these will cause their extermination.
Using Ant Bait Stations
Another practical long-term approach is to plant ant baits throughout your lawn, especially in areas where you are sure to find ants. Ant-baits keep the toxic chemical away from kids and pets while inviting ants to take a bite.
Moreover, ants that pass by the bait will carry the toxic chemical back to the mound killing the other ants, including the queen.
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Killing Ant Hills With Boiling Water And Borax: Is It Effective
Pouring boiling water over an ant hill can kill a lot of ants. The high temperature is likely to weaken the infrastructure of the nest. Depending on the size of the kettle and ant colony, you may have to make two or three trips to the kitchen.
The problem with hot water is that it may not reach the lowest tunnels. The ants at the bottom will also have enough time to flee the nest, so you may not get rid of the whole colony.
Borax is considered as one of the most effective ant hill killers. You can sprinkle it over an ant mound in powder form.
You can also mix it with a sugar solution and spray the mixture around the ant hill. The ants will be attracted to the sugar. They will take the mixture to their nest. The Borax will eliminate the entire ant colony.
Take extra care not to pour Borax on your lawn because it will kill the grass. You should also keep it away from children and pets because its harmful if ingested.
Why You Have To Kill The Fire Ant Queen
Fire ant life revolves around protecting and feeding the queen, who keeps the colony going and growing. Worker ants defend the mounds, feed the colony, and move the queen when the mound’s in danger. Fire ant queens can live more than seven years, but fire ant workers only live five weeks. Well-fed queens lay nearly 1,000 eggs a day, keeping the supply of workers and food constant.
As long as fire ant queens have protection and food, they don’t need a mound to survive. A queen only needs six workers to start a whole new colony.1But workers can’t start new colonies without a queen.
When your fire ant killer kills the queen or stops her from reproducing, the fire ant colony dies. Worker ants die off, the food supply stops and what remains of the colony can’t survive. That’s whythe target and kill fire ant queens along with fire ants and fire ant mounds. Unless you kill the queen, the colony in your yard lives on.
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Why Diy Treatments Wont Work
We often see customers whove tried to solve their funnel ant issue with DIY products theyve bought off the shelf at a local hardware or convenience store. The pesticides used in these products are usually either Permethrin or Bifenthrin.
These chemicals kill the ants on contact which is utterly pointless, as its impossible to kill ants deep beneath the surface. This of course means youre spot treating a handful of ants only, and after a couple of days, it rains, the mounds reappear, the ants return and back and youre back where you started. Youre just wasting your money and your time.
The bottom line is that youre never going to get on top of a funnel ant infestation using DIY products.
Why Should You Get Rid Of Ants In Your Lawn
Ants can be responsible for several problems in your lawn, but the main one is that they throw up anthills over their nests with all the soil they excavate. These are unsightly, make it difficult to mow the lawn and cause the ground to become uneven, so its important to prevent them.
Another issue is that they harvest aphids, feeding on the honeydew they produce. For this reason, they protect aphids against their natural predators, leaving more aphids to feed on your plants.
Finally, with serious infestations, they can also damage the root system of your grass, causing areas to die, and if you find yourself facing any of these issues, youll need to act so now lets look at the options you have for dealing with an ant infestation in your lawn.
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Got An Ant Problem Give Us A Call
If funnel ants have killed off patches of grass, leaving it lumpy and uneven, you want a professional grade treatment that offers you a long-term solution. We can help by restoring the condition of your lawn and leaving you confident in knowing that youve protected it from further funnel ant activity for up to two years. If you have a problem with funnel ants in your yard, give us a call. Well come out, inspect your property, give the best advice and get rid of them permanently!
Give us a call to get the process started.
Our focus areas include Brisbane, Gold Coast, Tweet Heads & Logan.
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What Are Red Imported Fire Ants
Red imported fire ants entered the United States through Alabama from South America in the 1930s. They thrive in warm, humid climates and have gradually spread throughout the Southeast. They are small, reddish brown ants, about ¼ inch in length. They build large nests in the ground with mounds that can range from a few inches to 2 feet in height. Occasionally, fire ants will even move into homes during heavy rains or excessive drought. Fire ants can be especially troublesome in undisturbed pasturelands, where you can usually find numerous large mounds.
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When To Call An Exterminator
Surachet Jo/Shutterstock
When is it okay to call for professional help in getting rid of ants in yards? When youve tried all other options, but the ants keep coming back, you might decide its time to bring in a professional exterminator. These pros have the necessary training and chemicals to eradicate the problem permanently.
Nematodes For Ant Control
Consider using nematodes to clear away the pests. Ants hate the idea of having their predators living close by and will move the nest to protect the colony. The parasitic nematode, Steinernema feltiae, can be used as a non-chemical control for black, red and yellow ants. Safe to children, pets and wildlife.
You just apply to moist soil when the soil temperature is above 5ºC and ensure the soil does not dry out for at least two weeks after applying nematodes. Nematodes are capable of surviving the odd frost so dont worry if the temperature falls after you have applied them.
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How To Remove Ant Hills In Your Garden
If you have a garden, its important that you know how to get rid of ant hills without harming your vegetables. Many products that are available for killing ants outdoors are not suitable for garden use.
So whats the best way to remove ant mounds in your garden?
- Use boric acid and sugarAdd a tablespoon of boric acid to a cup of sugar and mix them into a paste. Drop some of this paste near the ant hills, and anywhere else you see ants. The ants will take the poisoned sugar back to their queen, which will eliminate the entire colony.
- Use diatomaceous earthDiatomaceous earth can be safely used in food crop gardens. Sprinkle it on ant hills and around plants. This chalk-like powder will bind to the exoskeleton and spiracles of the ants, fatally dehydrating them in a couple of hours.
Are you looking for an ant repellent? Read this article to find out how to repel these unwanted visitors.
Is There A Natural Way To Destroy Ant Hills
There are several natural substances and deterrents that you can use to deal with your outdoor ant problem. They offer the least expensive method of destroying ant hills.
Lets find out what these natural solutions are:
- Carbonated waterThe carbon dioxide in carbonated water displaces the oxygen in the ant nest. This suffocates the lower levels of the nest, killing the queen. Depending on how deep the nest runs, you may have to pour a liter of the water or more over the hill.
- Pipe tobacco and waterAn excellent way of destroying ant colonies is using nicotine-infused water. The same pipe tobacco that can harm your health can also affect ants. It can quickly eliminate a colony. Soak the tobacco overnight. Discard the wet tobacco in the morning and pour the liquid over the ant hills.
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Tips To Get Rid Of Ants In Lawn
Once ants become established in your lawn, they can be hard to evict, but its far from an impossible task so if this is a problem youre dealing with, here are our top 13 tips to get rid of ants in lawn.
For a preview of a couple of the methods were going to be talking about, you can check out this video before reading on.
The Ants Are Damaging The Building
Wood-dwelling ants do not consume wood as termites do, but they may inflict significant damage during an outbreak. Carpenter ants and other wood-dwelling ants prefer hollow areas and keep digging wooden structures as they expand their colony. If you see any infestation symptoms that threaten your building, consult a specialist.
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Why Do I Have Ant Hills In My Yard
When looking for a way to destroy ant hills, its good to have some basic understanding of the makeup of the hills themselves. Contrary to popular belief, the ants dont usually live in the mounds you see in your yard.
Ants build a network of tunnels and chambers deep into the ground to shelter their colonies and store food. As they dig, they carry the displaced soil particles out of the burrows. The mound of dirt you see above the ground is the entrance and exit to an underground ant colony.
Flattening out an ant mound usually results in another one popping up after a few days. Thats because the ants will start rebuilding shortly afterward.
What Is The Best Homemade Ant Killer
Dish soap and water solution: Combine dish soap or dishwashing liquid with water in a spray container and shake thoroughly. Its a spray that you can use to kill ants. The ants will become engulfed in the solution, and the dish soap will suffocate them to death. This spray can also be used to kill ants on your plants.
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How To Get Rid Of Ants In The Lawn
Ants in the lawn can be annoying, unsightly and sometimes painful! Being able to enjoy your backyard is a right for all homeowners. Certainly, if you have children and pets, you want them to be able to enjoy playing on the lawn without getting bitten.
Ants that set up home in and around your lawn tend to be ants that bite or sting. Green headed ants will be well known to many people giving a painful sting that may itch for several days afterwards. But there are a number of smaller, faster moving ants that also give a mild sting or bite not as painful, but still annoying.
Chemical Controls For Ants
Theres a good few pesticides on the market that claim to get rid of an ant infestation. If you want to go down the chemical route, I would urge you to research products carefully. Consider other life forms you dont want to be contaminating water courses with anything that might upset the eco system, neither do you want to harm beneficial insects or any creatures that might make a meal of the dead ants. If your lawn is used by pets or people, please be extra vigilant about your choice of chemical control. It goes without saying that you should follow the manufacturers instructions to the letter. Wear the protective gear, measure chemicals out carefully and dont be tempted to alter the recommended dosage.
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