The grass and garden are infested with them this year.
Whilst we get a few every year, I've never seen so many as this year. Looking at other people's gardens, it's the same. Ant hills everywhere.
Is it the lousy weather that has contributed to their increase this year?
Just when I think I've got them under control, they're back trashing my lawn once again - Grrrr!!
We've even had a few indoors, but I've now managed to plug the holes in the corners of the window frames.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 16 Aug 12 at 10:10
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Relax! Like wasps (of which there seem to be very few this summer) they do much more good than harm. Your garden would suffer if they weren't there. Just do whet you're doing to discourage them from coming into the house and you'll be fine.
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They can be fascinating to watch.
I watched one a few days ago valiantly lugging a piece of bread across the terrace. Nothing would put it off, and it spurned all offers of help from other ants. I couldn't resist dropping off a few assistants, but they all ran off and left him to it.
The strange thing was there were other ants busy dragging food in the opposite direction.
I'm thinking of developing this as a model for government economic planning.
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>> they do much more good than harm.
Such as?
>> Your garden would suffer if they weren't there.
It's suffering because they are there. Well the lawn is.
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>> they do much more good than harm.
>>
I beg to differ. A few years back, the garden power system tripped come the first really nasty weather. Attempting to reset the trip produced an instant retrip.
After I spent some time out in the wet and cold, I eventually resorted to disconnecting the spur takeoff[1] from saucer-on-a-tube garden light 1 that ran lights 2 and 3, which got things going for the winter. Cue a winter of tripping over things in the dark and lots of swearing.
When the first warm weekend arrived the following year I set out to find the problem. Testing the spur showed a short. Dismantling the dubious looking lamp 3 revealed nothing. The perfectly sound looking (so the last one dismantled) lamp 2 had a ruddy ants' nest built up the inside of its post to above the level of the wiring block and capilliary action had done its stuff when the rain turned up.
Solution: Remake connections and set the whole lot in hot glue. Liberally distribute nasty ant killing stuff around lamp tube during reassembly.
[1] NB: This system predates my purchase of the house, is best described as "daisy chain with spur takeoffs" and is a "professional" installation. 'nuff said......
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They are busily nesting under and undermining the block paving of my driveway, every time I try to get rid of then I return to find little piles of sand in the drive ...
A kettle of boiling water provides a tasty meal of boiled ants mopped up rapidly by our partly tame blackbird nicknamed Scruffy Jr .... so called because he looks very bedraggled with feathers unpreened while he tries to cope with feeding the chicks.
He is not as tame as Scruffy Sr , his deceased dad who would take currants from my hand.
Such a greedy bird Scruffy Jr - his current currant record is a beakful of seven....and he still tries to get more in.....
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The water-barrels down the allotment are where the family Goldfish spend the Spring/Summer, (keep the barrels clear of Midge/Mozzy larvae!), and theres nothing they love more than a scoopful of ants nest dropping in!
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We've had several nests around the lawn and under the brickwork in the drive. The year's offspring flew the nest one evening last week as did those in our neighbour's gardens and round about.
What's the trigger that means they all fly together?
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Photoperiod (ie day length) is the trigger for a lot of biological systems. It's more consistent than local factors like temperature or humidity, which is why many organisms that depend on synchronizing occurrences have evolved to rely on it.
Remember that those ants aren't just 'flying the nest', they're new queens and males emerging to mate, and that it's their one chance for the year to do so. That means it's crucial that there be other ants there for them to mate with, so their ancestors that relied on temperature or humidity mistimed their exits and died out for want of partners.
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In Malaysia they were very useful for clearing away dropped crumbs and other small bits of food. They were usually on the case within the minute.
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I'm quite used to the "flying ants day" but last week all the dandelions shed their floaty bits at the same time, indoors was a mess of them because it was hot so windows open. nature never fails to amaze...
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Although spraying insecticides will kill a lot of ants, as will pouring boiling water, if you want to reducer them to a manageable level, you need to start when you first see them in the spring and lay down ant-bait stations, --- usually about 8cm round and 1.5cm high containers that have four holes to allow the ants access--- from which they take poison back to the queen. There are two types of container, sealed ones that you break the holes open, and empty metal ones you put bait in using a squeeze- tube, the liquid of which is based on using borax and sugar IIRC.
Wherever you see ants put a bait station down, with a roof tile, or similar, over it, to keep the rain off. Eventually the ant activity vanishes although you need to go back and look occasionally to see if you need to put it back again. Ideally you get the bait down before they start flying and the earlier in the season the better.
You will not get rid of your ants in just one year, but three successive years should get them down to where they are not much of a problem.
In the house getting rid is a realistic expectation, although you will need to keep watch for at least another two years. Just when you think you have won, there could be a few empty half ant eggs about and your creepy friends will be back ready to start digging your sand out again.
I have been chasing the blighter for years.
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"if you want to reducer them to a manageable level, you need to start when you first see them in the spring and lay down ant-bait stations,"
world population of ants is estimated at around 10,000,000,000,000 - it might take longer than you think! :-)
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>>I have been chasing the blighter for years.<<
So your three year programme doesn't work then Busbee? :)
Pat
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Yes it does. Previous unsuccessful years used insecticides. You spray one exit and they move along and come up somewhere else.
No ants in house now. About 5 smallish places in garden, this year. None got as far as releasing flying ants, but neighbour had some.
Incidentally, don't use insecticides when using bait. You want them to get back to the queen/s.
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from Wiki:
"This phenomenon occurs in many colonies simultaneously when the local weather conditions are appropriate, to reduce the effectiveness of predation and to ensure that the queens and males from different colonies stand a chance of meeting and interbreeding. It therefore has the appearance of being a 'timed' event or that the ants somehow communicate. However neither of these is likely to be the case - it is simply a common response to temperature, humidity and windspeed and time of year."
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We have a large colony of juvenile Starlings resident around our garden ATM. This afternoon their squabbling moved from the bird table to an area of the front lawn - ants all over the place and ready for picking. Quite funny to watch them eat one or two and then jump to catch others biting or spraying formic acid in their feathers.
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Some years ago, at another place, I had a dog that used to like finding their nests. He really showed how infested the garden was.
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ANT KILLER
Take a look at this:
www.food.com/recipe/get-rid-of-ants-ants-ants-203233
It uses a mixture of water, sugar and boric acid powder.
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Funny how appealing the anteater looks, despite looking so bizarre.
I can imagine a new B&Q garden accessory using the same design, perhaps with a dial like an electric iron, that you set to Ants, Slugs, Greenfly, etc. Then just turn it on and leave it to snuffle round the garden.
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I had wood ants move into my wood shed last year. They're quite big things, and collect sawdust, small wood chips etc to build their nest, usually out in the open like a giant mole hill. Get near it and you get sprayed. I didn't want them all in my firewood, so sprinkled a bit of ant killer powder near where they were going in, and job done in few days.
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>> wood ants !
I still remember them (as will my friend) from when we were kids, playing Cowboys and Indians in the woods behind our house. We were the Cowboys (goodies cos we had white hats!) and we dived behind one to avoid being shot! - seconds later, we were dancing and leaping about better than any Indian! We were sore for days! ;-(
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>> I had wood ants move into my wood shed last year.
They're a protected species. Scientists are working on looking after them. tinyurl.com/9odduks
Last edited by: L'escargot on Fri 24 Aug 12 at 15:47
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L'es
Not sure if you're aware or not. Only very long links need tinyurl'ing.
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VxFan,
Not sure if you're aware, actually nothing on this planet needs tinyurl'ing and its only the most archaic of places who bother. Its a hangover from the days when the GUI couldn't cope with wrapping a link and nobody put dodgy links. These days neither of those are true and any decent GUI can cope and dodgy/disguised links are common-place.
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>> VxFan,
>>
>> Not sure if you're aware, actually nothing on this planet needs tinyurl'ing
So why do sites such as tinyurl, makeashorterlink, Google Url Shortener, tiny.cc, etc provide such services then?
We politely ask that long links are posted in the tinyurl format here because some don't wrap correctly on certain browsers.
Archaic or not, loads of people enjoy this forum. From the young to the archaic ;o)
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>> We politely ask that long links are posted in the tinyurl format here because some
>> don't wrap correctly on certain browsers.
I think the main thing is to ensure that the Preview Feature is enabled. (Yes, yes, I know I've only just recently discovered it!)
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>> L'es
>>
>> Not sure if you're aware or not. Only very long links need tinyurl'ing.
>>
It's no problem to do it, and hence I just do it as a matter of course. It saves me having to decide whether a link is classified as short, long, or very long.
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>> The grass and garden are infested with them this year.
A friend has had a problem with ants in her lawns for a number of years. They result in the lawn surface being a mass of hummocks. It looks as if the only solution would be to have the lawns completely remade, but if the ants remained in the soil the hummocks would quickly return. She's tried most proprietary ant killers but none of them have worked. In case it's relevant the soil is of a fine consistency and is acid.
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I remember reading some time ago that you could order nematodes through the post that eradicate ants. IIRC you added water and used a watering can.
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Since I started raking the moss out of our "Block Paving - Aaaarh!" drive and seen it at close quarters I've discovered that it's got loads of ant's nests. In the past there have been very very few ants.
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Block paving creates an ideal habitat for ants. The sand beneath the blocks is dry and warm and ideal for their nests which become extensive. They don't do any harm though so just ignore them.
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>> They don't do any harm
You should see some of the block paving around here where ants have been left alone!
I get the powder out soon as I spot any activity.
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"You should see some of the block paving around here where ants have been left alone!"
Thats just Anty social behaviour.
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>> The grass and garden are infested with them this year.
I've found that if there is evidence of an ants nest in the lawn, the best thing is to bring the ants to the surface before applying ant powder. The way to bring the ants to the surface is the poke something into the ground to disturb the nest and infuriate the little critters ~ a long screwdriver seems to be the ideal implement.
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>> The way to bring the ants to the surface is the poke something into the ground.....
Yep, that's what I do.
However, just when I thought I'd got them under control, 7 or 8 nests have appeared on the lawn again after the storms we had on Saturday.
I mix the ant powder into the soil so it's not quite so visible.
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Ants! - WillDeBeest
