There isn’t a great deal of introduction which could be made in relation to ants in lawns. We all know what they are, we all don’t like them in our lawns, and we all want simple straightforward ideas as to the best way to remove ants from our lawns and to keep them out.
What else is there to say? So let’s get started.
Pesticide Treatment For Ants
There are many different products and methods of killing ants in lawns using pesticides.
Ant dusts can be sprinkled around nests and anywhere we find trails of ants. The same is true for liquid ant killers which attract the ants with a sticky substance which may mimic a preferred food source for the insect.
Some lawn pesticides meant for lawn grubs like Army Worm can also treat ants.
And there are other insecticides which can also be used on lawns and gardens and paths to kill ants.
Our local nursery will stock all these different ant pesticide options for us to make a choice from, with each different product needing to be applied to our lawns or gardens or paving in different ways, so we should always read manufacturers guidelines for use of their products carefully for best results and for safe results for us too.
However, like all other aspects of lawn care and lawn problems, we should be taking a much bigger view of things is how we manage and care for our lawns overall, this too will help in the control of ants and many other lawn problems too, and this overall view of our lawn care in a bigger picture is called Cultural Management.
Lawn Watering
Ants will prefer dry soils in which to build their colonies, and an under-watered lawn provides both a welcome environment to ants to live in, but it also most often ensures the lawn itself is unhealthy, or weak, or sparse and in poor heath. These too factors of dry soils and sparse lawns in poor health are two welcoming signals to invite ants to setup home in our lawns.
If we have hydrophobic soils under our lawns, we could look at improving the lawn soil, which is especially easy if the lawn is already in poor health, by adding richer soil as a top-dressing to the lawn. We can also look at applying wetting agents to the lawn on a more regular basis, which will then aid the soil to distribute water in its entire topsoil profile more easily, and will help dry soils hold onto water for longer if compared to if we never used wetting agents at all.
Increase Lawn Health
A healthy lawn on its own is not a complete deterrent for ant invasions, though it does most certainly help to reduce the opportunities for ants to colonise. Ants do prefer flat and hard surfaces in which to live, and a thick lush healthy lawn is not that preferred home. Imagine for a moment being an ant and having to crawl through all that thick thatch layer and up and down lawn leaves to try and go about their business to find something to eat each day… much better for the ants for find sparse garden beds, paving etc to build their new homes.
In this sense ensuring our lawns are as healthy as possible, thick and lush, will naturally make them unwelcome environments for ant colonies.
Good lawn care practices, ensuring regular lawn fertilising and watering, and even increasing lawn mowing heights can all work together to help prevent ants in our lawns.
Remove Food And Water Sources
Ants need both food and water to survive, and somewhere around their colonies will be sources for both. We should aim to track down and remove both food and water sources for ants, remembering that ants don’t need a great deal of food or water for their tiny little bodies to survive, so we should be looking out for not just the big and obvious water and food sources, but also the minute.
A little investigative work will be needed here, and we might need to look around the yard for any signs of trails of ants and to track down where they’re going, because a long trail of ants is only looking for one thing… food… so let’s track the ants and find their food source.
Dripping taps, pets water bowls and any containers laying around the yard can all trap water, not just for ants, but for mosquitoes and even rats too. Obviously pet food bowls can be moved or cleaned more frequently, we should also look to anywhere we may be digging food scraps into the garden and around compost heaps too. Berries and fruits falling from trees can be food sources, as can overripe vegetables falling from vines.
Sometimes we may not be able to cut off a food source for ants on our property because the food source could be off our property, in this case we could look at putting up some kind of barrier to prevent the ants from reaching their destination.
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