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When my kids play in the backyard, it’s not surprising that they would come across different types of insects such as butterflies, ladybug, worms, and especially ants. In most of the time, I am not concerned about it. After all, this is part of their experience to learn about our nature and to respect the environment. In fact, ants play a beneficial role in the ecosystem by cleaning away organic waste and dead bugs in the yard. In spite of that, it is still disturbing when there are thousands of them gathering on your lawn at one particular spot. This was what happened to mine a couple of years ago. The visual image of an army of them crawling rapidly over the grass would still give me a cold flash now. To make sure my backyard could continue being a safe playground for my kids, below are some methods I gathered from my friends and the internet. I tried some of them and will share with you what worked and did not work for me.
Interesting Things in this Post
1) Look for Organic Waste
The first thing I did is to track if there are any food sources for the ant. If you have been a parent for some time, you’ll know that kids drop foods on the ground accidentally is unavoidable. Goldfish crackers, fruits, granola bars are all delicious buffet for the ants. It would be difficult to clean every little piece of them, but you should at least pick up the larger ones. If there are juice spills on the ground, rather than waiting for the next rain to come, I typically will rinse it with a garden hose. As for the organic waste garbage bin, I would place them away from my backyard.
2) Ant Trap
I put an ant trap directly on top of the ant nest area. To my surprise, I didn’t see any ants going in. When I did some research on the internet, many moms also regretted doing so. Despite their best effort to supervise their kids, the minute, or even the second they turned their eyes away, their kids already put the ant trap in their mouth.
3) Don’t Mow the Lawn Too Short
Some people believe if the grass is long, then you don’t see the ants. Since you don’t see them, then there is no problem. I do not admire such a passive strategy. This is like swapping all the garbage to the bottom of a couch, and pretend they are not there. Besides, when there are thousands of ants in one spot, it’s impossible not to see them regardless of the grass length.
Of course, regardless of there are ants or not, you should still mow your lawn to a reasonable length regularly. Here’s a cordless lawn mower that you might be interested in reading more about.
4) Drain the Ant Nest with Water
I also drained the ant nest with my garden hose. I turned on the valve until the ant nest was over flooded with water. I did not think this process has created any damage to them, as most of the ants just swam through the water until they reached another dry land. Later on, when I did more research, some people suggested using hot water. I did not try this method as I would need to boil a lot of the water to make the amount significant. However, if you were to try, make sure you handle the hot water with extra caution and not injure yourself or anyone.
5) Apply Vinegar
The next method I tried is to apply vinegar to the ant nest. I poured a gallon of cooking vinegar into it. Despite the fact that I did see there were some dead ants in the next day, there were still a tremendous amount of survival ones. Therefore, I repeated the same process for three more days. Even to the point, I could not tolerate the strong smell of the vinegar in the ant nest. There were still many ants.
6) Dig Up the Entire Ant Colony
Two weeks after I applied the vinegar, I decided to dig out the entire ant colony. I dug down about 1 feet in depth, and 2 feet in diameter, and placed the dugout soil along with the ants into the yard waste paper bag. I poured back enough grass soil to fill up the hole in the ground, then replant it with regular grass seeds. I watered the replant area daily in the next two weeks.
I re-examined the ant next area in about four weeks. Although the grass has grown back nicely, I was astonished to see there were still many ants in that area. It’s just that the grass was longer and thicker, so I can no longer see the ants as clearly as before. I did further research. It seems that digging out the entire ant nest is not a feasible choice. The reason is the core of the ant nest could be way further under the ground with many underground passages.
7) Ant-killer Spray
I was reluctant to apply any chemical to my lawn, as I always want my kids to have as little exposure to them as possible. However, since I have tried numerous methods already, I would give an ant-killer spray a try. I applied it onto the ant nest, and I witnessed the immediate effect. I do not doubt that it worked because even as an adult human, the strong odor was enough to make me feel uncomfortable. If you are going to use it, make sure to wear a dust mask, and wait for a few days before your kids play in the yard.
Other Ants Control Insights:
The ant-killer spray did work for my backyard, and I haven’t applied it again in the last two years. Even though I still see some ants in my yard occasionally, the number of them is minimal when compared with before.
There are studies that state a well-maintained lawn would have less chance of having ants problems. I found that ants problem tend to be more severe when the grass was too dry. Therefore, I would water the lawn regularly, apply fertilizer, soil and grass seed as needed.
There are other methods for ants control. For example, applying soapy water, baking soda, lemon juice, or even essential oils. They could all be potential solutions, but the methods I tried are sufficed to create a safe backyard for my kids.
One interesting article I recently read from GardenMyths.com [1]http://www.gardenmyths.com/how-to-get-rid-ants-coffee-grounds/ is applying coffee grounds to the ants’ nest area. The author did some experiments, and evidence that ants do not like coffee grounds. I’d love to try this process. I’m already a regular coffee drinker, so this should be very convenient for me to do.
If you are looking to apply any ant control strategy, I would suggest you try only one at a time. This way you would know which method actually works.
Once again, I would only consider getting rid of the ants if the problem is severe. After all, they also contribute to the ecosystem. It is essential to find the balance in creating a safe backyard for our children and educate them to respect our nature.
Thank you for reading the entire post! Here is a list of tools I would use to maintain a backyard. Hope this would be helpful to you 🙂
Disclaimer: This content of this website is for general information, and do not intend to provide any specific advice. Although I tried my best in providing accurate information, I cannot guarantee they are error-free. Information displayed on this website could be subjected to change. For any medical-related question, you should always consult with your family doctor. For safety or product related question, you should consult with the actual manufacturer.
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Jacob is a father of two daughters. He loves spending quality time with them in the backyard. Playing sports, blowing bubbles, and planting are some the favorite activities Jacob and his daughters like to do together. He believes it is essential to spend quality time with them while they are still young.
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