Ants In The Lawn

Ants Invading The Home Lawn

Ants can occasionally get out of control in home lawns when they swell to huge numbers with a multitude of nests which can spread through lawns and surrounding pathways. The control of ants in home lawns is relatively straight forward although it may take a little effort over several treatments.

Small infestations are usually nothing to worry about, as ants are just another creature which is an important part of our ecosystem. In small numbers they help to create aeration in the soil underneath turf which aids in it's overall health, and can also feed on other insects and help break downs other small garden creatures, and return these nutrients into the soil.

Recurring Damage From Ants

The damage caused when we have a severe ant infestation in lawns can aggravate and increase already struggling bare patches of turf and create unsightly ant mounds, but the damage doesn't always end there. Ants also infest themselves into gaps in garden paths and between paving, which is one of their preferred locations as they are relatively safe and usually go on to create large networks of tunnels and nests. This infestation underneath pathways can create a major problem over time when the ants eventually displace enough sand or soil that the paving begins to collapse and become uneven in many places. So it is a wise measure to deal with ants effectively as soon as they are seen to be getting out of control.

Killing Ants In The Lawn

To begin controlling or killing large infestations of ants around our home, lawn and gardens, we must first understand why they are getting out of control in the first place and begin rectifying these contributing factors as the most important aspect in their long term control.

Ants thrive when they have an adequate supply of food and water, and a welcoming place to set up their nests.

Food and Water

So our first step to a permanent control of ants is to look for their food and water source around the garden or home, this can often be pet foods left outside, pet water bowls, a dripping tap, compost piles with food waste which isn't breaking down properly and so on. So we need to remove these items or move them to a place where the ants are less likely to get to them. Ants may also be going inside the home to find food scraps and crumbs, so good hygiene inside the house is a must, always wiping benches and sweeping floors.

Poor Lawns and Sandy Conditions

The next thing to consider with ants is they thrive in sandy conditions, which is why they love living underneath paving so much, with it's adequate supply of clean sand used as a base. This also means that ants love lawns which are already patchy and sandy. These bare patches in lawns are where the ants will set up home first, and then they make the bare patches worse when they begin reaching plague proportions. So a very important step in controlling ants permanently is good lawn health. A lawn in excellent health is highly unlikely to ever be a good host for ants, living between the thatch layer is totally unsuitable for them. So the better our lawns health is and the better it looks, the more uninviting it becomes to ants.

Ant Insecticides

The last line of defense on the list is using insecticides. There are many ant killing treatments for sale at the local store, and the best choice is one which is designed for the ants to take back to the nest to kill other ants with, so ensure you are buying the right product. Insecticide use will also need to continued inside the house if ants come inside to feed on food scraps, a general purpose surface spray is best for this purpose.

Conclusion

Finally, we can only stress the importance of following all 3 principles to get rid of ants permanently, no one single treatment will fix the problem. Just applying insecticides will not work, because some ants will always remain and very quickly re-colonize if there is adequate food, water, and a welcoming place to build their nests.