I've just got the grass cut at the house I've bought. I reckon it hadn't been done at all this year (and possibly not last year either). I've got ruddy great ant hills. Thought they were mole hills at first, they're a good foot across and high enough to stall the mower. There must be over dozen of them. I'm unable to identify if they're red or black, as I presume the little blighters are sleeping. At my old house I'd just stamp them down when I cut the grass. That wouldn't eradicate them completely, but seemed the most effective way of keeping them in check.
Anyone had any success at controlling them, nematodes foe example? I've never tried them.
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>>Anyone had any success at controlling them, nematodes foe example? I've never tried them.
No success at all, none. And I had red ants. I'm reasonably sure I tried everything. The only thing I had any success with was a chemical from Chile that was (is, I assume) illegal in the UK.
I tried everything, I went to war. The only thing you could say was that all out war kept them to a tolerable level. Whereas the one year of inaction caused a massive resurgence. At it's worse it was not possible to sit on the law, and even standing still for a while caused them to be on your feet.
I would actually change my mind about buying a house if I found them in a garden to that level again.
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Full kettle of boiling water down each one should sort them out.
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Far fewer than BT reports but we've had some success partly exposing the nest by lifting the turf and then using proprietary ant powder.
It's like whack a mole though. You sort them out and another set emerge.
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>>It's like whack a mole though. You sort them out and another set emerge.
Exactly that. Which is unsightly if they're black ants, but a massive problem if they're red.
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>> It doesn't
It's worked for me in the past.
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Sat 11 Dec 21 at 14:59
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>> >> It doesn't
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>> It's worked for me in the past.
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With respect, not on something the size of this, I shouldn't think.
"Thought they were mole hills at first, they're a good foot across "
I've dug them up in the past, they're amazingly deep. And the hills you can se are really only the very tips, you simply cannot get to the lower stuff. It was so bad that at one point I thought of getting a JCB in and taking the top foot off the lawn and replacing it. Aside from the massive cost and effort, it turned out that the top foot wouldn't have been enough and since I'd leave some, then they'd just come back over a couple of years.
The problem with my lawn was that it had been left for some years and so they had really taken hold.
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Sure its not body parts?
Flying ant season is going to be exciting.
While they are dormant - and deep - take off the tops with a spade to level the ground,, open them up with a fork and turn them over in the spring, sprinkling generous ant powder in, and seed them
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Also the very fact of walking over the area regularly will discourage them. We had a lot of ants this year and it may just be a naturally bad year. Or a good year for those ant fans out there.
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>> Or a good year for those ant fans out there.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2a6l6wM2k
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You could just board over the lawn.
On the other hand, the last thing you want in your garden is ant and deck.
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Liquid nitrogen got rid of the ones that invaded the workshop at work a few years ago. We traced where the nest was by the trail of ants carrying sugar from the bowl on someone's desk back to camp.
It still took 3 days to freeze them to death though.
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>> You could just board over the lawn.
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>> On the other hand, the last thing you want in your garden is ant and
>> deck.
Outstanding.
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Hope I can remember that.
Excellent
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>> Hope I can remember that.
>> Excellent
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You will, Oscar.....you will !
Ted
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>> While they are dormant - and deep - take off the tops with a spade
>> to level the ground,, open them up with a fork and turn them over in
>> the spring, sprinkling generous ant powder in, and seed them
Is this from experience, or conjecture?
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>> >> While they are dormant - and deep - take off the tops with a
>> spade
>> >> to level the ground,, open them up with a fork and turn them over
>> in
>> >> the spring, sprinkling generous ant powder in, and seed them
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>> Is this from experience, or conjecture?
it worked on a previously unmowed for 6 months lawn. And besides, you have no other recourse. You wont get rid of them for ever, but you merely need to get to the stage where new ones are scattered small, to be flattened and the ant eggs destroyed by regular mowings and it all become manageable and liveable with. At the end of the day, you want some ants in the garden, but in areas where they do the best work.
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Ant nests - No FM2R
