The ants we have in the yard making the trails are Thatching Ants, they create mounds and their tunnels can be 2 to 4 feet deep. They have a queen and lotza workers...even different classes of workers....and then the nest sends out more queens to make more nests.
Seems like from what I have read they are hard to kill. The love the Oaks....we must have aphids in the Oaks because many of the leaves are sticky...which provides great food for the ants and you see them crawling up trees. I also read where the bites can blister...hence my stomping of my feet and cussing right out loud when bitten.
I have seen huge mounds in a ditch north of here...we have a huge mound by a power pole along the road...we called the Electric company and told them...I guess they don't care.
Seems there is a shortage of Diatomaceous Earth too... I may have to order it online. One of my readers suggested a mixture of borax and powdered sugar...sounds like a great alternative.
The war will continue. I read there are thousands per nest....
Far Side
Just passing....
ReplyDeleteDealing with a Thatching ant infestation is best
left to seasoned professionals..
The most effective method of eradicating an infestation
is to infiltrate the nest, then liberally apply a pesticide
deep within it..
Some nests can be as deep as four feet into the ground, making
this a difficult task..
Under most circumstances, thatching ants should be considered
beneficial, since they are fierce predators of other insects..!
AND...While the ants can bite, they are not aggressive biters..!
From what I have experienced they ARE aggressive biters!
DeleteI think we have them too. I know so many folks have been complaining about them and trying to get rid of them on the community FB page.
ReplyDeleteOne of the 'experts' reasoned that they are such an issue this year is because it is so dry? I'm not sure if that is the case. Our mounds of ants are not near the house, as the house is surrounded by little flower beds.
Nasty creatures!
Strange the things that are in short supply, like diatomaceous earth. I wouldn't think there would be such a shortage in that department. I hope your weather is cooled off a little. :-)
ReplyDeleteSomewhere on the web, I have seen videos of folks who pour molten metal down ant mounds killing the ants and then making a profit when they sell the solidified metal as an abstract art sculpture.
ReplyDeleteSure doesn't sound good. All the shortages are getting out of control!
ReplyDeleteThat must be the type of ant we have in one of our horse pastures, as they have a big mound like that.
ReplyDeleteIt sure does sound like a pest that will be hard to get rid of. Good luck with that process.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never heard of this type of ant - nature has some interesting creatures.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we've ever had these types of ants on our property. At least that I've seen anyway. But we have plenty of other kinds. I don't bother with them as long as they stay outside. The outdoors are their domain and the inside is mine. Once they come inside, I don't have much patience for them. :-) ~Andrea xoxoxo
ReplyDeleteI've used boiling water in the past to rid myself of ants. But I've never seen thatching ants and they definitely sound like nasty little critters.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Thatching Ants although I don't know much about ants in general. We have a variety of them around here and some are large with big ant hills. They can be a real pain especially if the ones you have leave blisters from the bites! I have also heard about using borax and powdered sugar to kill them. I sure hope you can get rid of your ants!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have thatching ants here, but we do have lots of fire ants. They are very painful as they bite with pincers as well as sting. Their bites/stings make blisters and swell and really do hurt like fire! If their mounds are disturbed, they come boiling out by the thousands. We use Amdro fire ant granules which they take back down into their nests and feed to the queen. It works pretty well, but don't know if that would work on thatching ants.
ReplyDeleteGramps used to have one of these nests near his cabin up north. Those things sure stung when they bit ya. I never knew why he kept them around, but probably he didn't care because they were outside and away from the house. I'm sure they provide a service somewhere in the ecosystem.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of thatching ants, either.
ReplyDeleteWe have fire ants. All I know about them is they are horrible. The hill are big and they sting.
ReplyDeleteI mutter dire things about the ants we have in the back which make little piles of sand between the paving stones. But at least they don't bite. I like Ed's idea of pouring molten metal down the ant holes but who has access to molten metal?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if that's the kind of ants we have now. There are mounds up and down the sides of the the dirt path and little tunnels dug back and forth across the path. If something touches the nest, the ants come pouring out.
ReplyDeleteick! that's one of the unfun things about summer! Hope you can get rid of them, somehow, someway. We had some black ants coming in, in late April, so called the Bug Guy, and they're gone.
ReplyDeleteI had to Google diatomaceous earth. Now I know.
ReplyDeleteThatching ants must be what I used to see on mounds in a nearby park with native brush. I havene seen them lately. I wonder where they moved to.
I am waging war here on Brown-tail moths! They are eating my strawberry plants, flowering shrubs and have nests in all the apple trees. They eat the leaves voraciously! You don’t have to touch them to be poisoned by them. I had such a bad rash on every part of me that wasn’t covered that I had to go to ER and put on prednisone! Ugh!
ReplyDeleteThey sound like a real challange, that's for sure. I hope you find something that works.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to go look up these ants. We have huge mounds, but I don't think they are these ants. Maybe not anyway.
ReplyDeleteUgh! Hope your home remedy works, those ants sound nasty.
ReplyDeleteWe have insect killing salespersons stopping by weekly. I bought some raid as I only have tiny ants.
ReplyDelete