ant hills in lawn

[DonL]

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/ins....htm/printable

Ants eat fruit, flowers, and seeds, while others eat everything in their path, including small animals.

Ants have special mouthparts for grabbing and eating food. First come the mandibles, which are jaws that move from side to side. Ants use their mandibles to hold food, carry their young, and fight enemies. Behind the mandibles are the maxillae (mak SIHL ee), which are used for chewing. But ants do not swallow the food right away. First the food passes to a pouch behind the mouth. There, the liquid is squeezed out of the food. Ants swallow the liquid and spit out the leftover food pellet.

Ants have two kinds of stomachs—a stomach and a crop. Food an ant eats for itself goes to the stomach. Food it shares with others is stored in the crop. The ant spits up this food to feed other ants and larvae. Hungry ants may stroke each other or tap antennae to ask for food.

Nice Cookie, Thank You.

[Dana]

And...

Boric acid don't kill the ants, it kills their gut protozoans that break down cellulosic material in order for it to be able to digest and use it as food, eventually starving the host ant. The fact that ants share it with their nest-mates means it's a targeted attack. The not-yet sick ants share the borates with their buddies,and sick ants are often cannibalized by their nest-mates, and over the course of a week the net effect on a nest is profound.

But borates also kill plants, so use very sparingly in a lawn application.

Toxicity to humans and other mammals is quite low- boric acid and other borates are often used in soaps, detergents, cosmetics etc.

[Giles]

I have had good results from saturating mounds with CLOROX straight from the bottle. This suggestion was given to me by a Chemist. Some grass kill can be expected but grass is usually dead under the mound already.

[NorbertV]

Hi Barry:

I have a mechanical solution for ant hills. I use a shop vac with a metal canister and fine dry sand. First I take the vacum and suck up all the ants and dirt around the mound. Keep vacuming until there is no more movement. Apply the nozzle to any visible openings and try to suck up any underground ants. Once all movement has stopped pour the fine sand into the exposed openings. Extend the mound of sand to cover all possible openings. Now kill all the ants collected with a hand held torch. I call it ant flambe. If you have a lot of material in the canister then suffocate the ants with CO2. Start a small fire in the canister and then cover it. That will deplete the oxygen. Wait a few hours of the ants to die. Check the mound next day and repeat

I have huge ant hills throughout my lawn, probably about 100-200 of them, some about 12inches wide.

I can't use pesticides because of my little dog and kids.

I tried boiling water, but that kills my lawn, I tried ground pepper bit that does not work. I tried instant grits, supposily, the worker ants will bring the grit down to the queen, she will eat it, and when she drinks water, it expands and "explodes" her...has anyone tried this????

I sprinkled grits all over the hills, but after a while seen ants carring the grits away from the mounds...are they just bringing them to another hill or are they smarter then me???

Any other ideas???

Thanks Barry

[LLigetfa]

I only get a few colonies trying to establish in my lawn. I'm still trying to picture hundreds of them and wonder how bad they could be with the mower knocking them down once of twice a week.

If your lawn is secluded, you can try urinating on the mounds. I had a few persistent colonies where that worked. Mostly though, I just stomp down the mounds when they first appear and/or I steer my tractor to run over them.

[DonL]

Hi Barry:

I have a mechanical solution for ant hills. I use a shop vac with a metal canister and fine dry sand. First I take the vacum and suck up all the ants and dirt around the mound. Keep vacuming until there is no more movement. Apply the nozzle to any visible openings and try to suck up any underground ants. Once all movement has stopped pour the fine sand into the exposed openings. Extend the mound of sand to cover all possible openings. Now kill all the ants collected with a hand held torch. I call it ant flambe. If you have a lot of material in the canister then suffocate the ants with CO2. Start a small fire in the canister and then cover it. That will deplete the oxygen. Wait a few hours of the ants to die. Check the mound next day and repeat

I gave that a try and Melted my Plastic Vac Canister.

Where did I go wrong ?

Now I have no way to repeat.

Guess I will have to drink a bunch of beer and piss on it.

[eeplants]

I have tried boiling hot water into it, but no use. So I decided to use a repeller now to finally get rid of them, thankfully it worked

[doublesharp]

I live on an ant hill in Glades County Florida. Termidor is the answer. You couldn't live here without pesticides and Termidor is great stuff. Safe for pets as long as it's dry when you let them out. I buy from this dealer and recommend them without reservation.
http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/te..._medium=mybuys