Ant Hills in your Lawn?

It’s that time of year again when the Ants rise up and begin ruining your lawn!

This dry weather is the perfect environment to encourage ants to build their nests closer to the surface of your lawn in the search of food. When they begin building their nests they release an acid from their stomachs which may cause small burn/yellow marks the size of a saucer on your lawn. This is your warning sign that they are coming!

Next you will see small piles of soil (like in the picture above) where the ants break through the surface. If left, these will only get bigger and eventually make your lawn uneven or worse, leave large mounds all over the lawn. These are very unsightly and make mowing difficult without scalping the lawn.

So here are my tips for dealing with Ants in your lawn:

• Check your lawn for these small mounds of earth before you mow. Do not stand on the Ant Hill or go over it with your lawn mower. This will compact the mound and cause further uneveness.

• Once located, use a stiff brush or rake to scatter the soil across the lawn surface.

• Then use a garden fork to punch holes 2-3 inches deep where the ant hill was. You may find that the ants will begin to run out of the holes.

• Now apply a good Ant Powder to the area to ensure those ants take the powder back into the nest and kill off the ‘others’.

• I would then wait 48hrs before watering the Ant Powder in so that it doesn’t burn your lawn.

• Never pour boiling water onto the grass as it will kill the grass as well as the nest. As an alternative to Ant Powder you could try pointing a hose down the holes you made for 2-3 minutes to drown the ants.

• Effectively a well watered lawn shouldn’t attract as many ants as they prefer dry condtions.If after this you are left with some small bare patches, I can add a little seed to them on my next visit.

You may now be faced with some bare patches, but a little seed from your Lawn Care Specialist during your next treatment and your lawn will be back looking glorious!!

Good Luck!!!