Ants in the lawn

[John]

Recently I have noticed piles of fresh earth in my lawn. I think caused by ants - how can I get rid of the ants ? I have tried normal ant powder - they just move to another place.

[Snooze]

Describe the piles? Small droplets of sticky mud are probably castings from worms. Mounds of dirt about 4 - 5 inches high are probably the result of a gopher or mole. Shove a screwdriver around the mound to find the soft spot, which is where the tunnel is, place either a trap or bait in the tunnel, then carefully cover the tunnel.

Dirt piles caused by ants, at least the ones out here are barely noticeable, at the most a centimeter or so high near the entrance to their colony. Look around the pile, see if you can find an entrance to their colony. Try using slow acting poison near, not on top, of an ant trail, the scouts will find it on their own and bring back the poison to the queen and the rest of the colony.

-S

[escape]

You need not kill the ants since if you have them your soil is being aerated. Just rake the mound down and be on with it. Trying to poison ants, which is the largest population of insects on earth is futile and not worth poisoning the water system with toxins. IMO

[John]

Thanks to both that answered. I'll try both methods regards John

[carbuff]

I always use a pistol-grip water-hose sprayer, on the strongest setting, and spray until the mound is lawn-level. I assume the resulting mud seals the passages, or the ants drown, or they just say "hey, this is a hostile environment, let's move" It's cheap, and it's eco-friendly, plus it works (for me, anyway) YMMV

[ds549]

diazinon or malation sprayed in the hole and or spray the whole area will kill them. lucas

[Leon Trollski]

Why do you need to poison them, poison your land and your neighbors?

[Doug Kanter]

Because advertising told him to, and his mind didn't tell him not to (yet). There's an entire generation that never heard of Love Canal, or extrapolated outward to the bigger implications.

[Vox Humana]

extrapolated

I think you are right about this. I admit that at one time I had the attitude that insects were meant to be killed. I think that advertising has taught us that all insects are bad. I have reconsidered, and seldom take any action to eliminate insects unless they are in the house, and even then, I don't go after things like spiders. I see my neighbors spraying everything that moves. I know for a fact that they don't read the directions on these products. I think that I have fewer insects problems now then when I doused everything with chemicals. Sure, I have a bit of insect damage here and there on plants. I can live with that. I also have some ants, wasps, yellow jackets, and other assorted insects in the garden along with toads, frogs, snakes, and lots of birds. It all tends to balance itself if you leave it alone. The few plants like roses that couldn't make it without chemicals were eliminated.

[Lar]

In article , [e-mail] says... :) Because advertising told him to, and his mind didn't tell him not to (yet). :) There's an entire generation that never heard of Love Canal, or extrapolated :) outward to the bigger implications. :) :) though he spraying a gallon diazinon or malathion in a general area to kill ants will probably not give him the results he would like, hardly can compare it to Love Canal fiasco, 20,000 tons of petro chemical waste, waste from chemical warfare experiments...decades of usage.

[Doug Kanter]

The problem is that whatever you apply to the ground has to go somewhere. Nobody wonders where "somewhere" is. Here (Rochester NY), runoff goes into the street sewers. From there, it goes to a water treatment plant, and the so-called "improved" water goes into Lake Ontario. For fish caught in the lake, the state's health warnings have only gotten worse over the years (for eating the fish). Guess where much of Rochester gets its drinking water? Lake Ontario.

The two largest sources of chemical pollution in the U.S. are homeowners and golf courses.

[Lar]

In article , [e-mail] says... :) The problem is that whatever you apply to the ground has to go somewhere. :) Nobody wonders where "somewhere" is. Here (Rochester NY), runoff goes into :) the street sewers. From there, it goes to a water treatment plant, and the :) so-called "improved" water goes into Lake Ontario. For fish caught in the :) lake, the state's health warnings have only gotten worse over the years (for :) eating the fish). Guess where much of Rochester gets its drinking water? :) Lake Ontario. :) :) The two largest sources of chemical pollution in the U.S. are homeowners and :) golf courses. :) :) Unless the amount of treatment is over a french drain, the topical spray isn't going anywhere at the amounts he would be using. Even if the products didn't bind at all to the ground matter when sprayed, the amount of water needed for it to be transported would be to great in the amount of time it degrades. Of course that is under assumption of a general area treatment by Joe Homeowner and guessing your coming from Joe Homeowner is out in front of a major storm applying his corn cob granules and happens to live uphill from a water source, which is a major problem for the environment.

[escape]

There's a whole country which voted for Bush, so why not a whole generation who never heard of Love Canal? I find that our country of America is going through the barbaric stage of infancy as a nation, much the way Roman's did in the days of vomitoriums and men having sex with boys. This whole place seems insane to me.

[escape]

No fiasco here in Austin, Texas, but Barton Springs Pool which is a natural pool people swim in is thoroughly polluted and has toxic levels of atrazine (sp?) a herbicide used in every bag of weed and feed, as well as toxic levels of dursban and about a thousand other poisons. It would be great if water ran uphill, but unfortunately, it doesn't.

[escape]

Not for nothing, but most of the entire body of the United States is uphill from a water source. Unless, of course, you don't count Louisiana, which is a sump of toxic poisons.

[Doug Kanter]

Hey...I know two people who do not believe General Electric dumped tons of toxic crap into the Hudson River, even though the company admitted to doing so in court. They think GE was somehow coerced, and that the company is now being abused by officials who expect them to pay for the cleanup effort. Poor GE. :-( It's a weird frame of mind - something like the early 1950s. Production is good at any price, and all corporations are perfect and innocent.

Water quality decisions (and the ensuing budgets) should be decided by fishermen. A couple of years ago, the NY dep't of environmental conservation sent out a survey to fishing license holders, asking questions about how we felt about planned efforts to clean up Onondaga Lake, in Syracuse. A few questions were aimed at finding out whether we, as fishermen, would ever fish the lake if it was cleaned up. Whether we'd trust the cleanup process, in other words. The consensus was a resounding "forget about it - can't be done - spend the money on something useful".

[Donna deMedicis]

Unless, of course, they're fire ants, and then all bets are off and anything, including nuclear weapons, is fair game.

Donna (who mostly lurks)

[bamboo]

What happens to these piles when you mow? Seems to me the ants are aerating your soil. Maybe you should feed them.

[Snooze]

Except the original poster lives in UK. Fire ants haven't made it there yet, and hopefully won't adapt to living in that climate.