Let’s be real, ants oftentimes really suck. They take over areas that are your property and if they take home in your house, that’s a bad time.
Keeping ants outside is of utmost importance but having too many in your lawn is annoying as well. Don’t want them taking over your plants or getting all over your animals (and then these ants are coming inside anyways.)
No, in these situations it’s best to kill as many ants in your lawn as possible. We’ll explain why killing ants can help you and your lawn, how to kill them, and recommended tips on keeping ants away.
Why Does Killing Lawn Ants Matter?
Some might argue that we shouldn’t mess with the ants in our lawn as they are respecting their space and staying outside of our homes.
However, some circumstances of having ants in your lawn can be detrimental both to your lawn and end up with your home.
Ants can invest in any place, not just indoors. Having several anthills in your driveway or your lawn can mean there are too many ants on your property to have a good lawn ecosystem.
Too many ants will kill off plants by either damaging roots through building their nest or through them eating the stems and leaves of your growing plants.
If you have animals, they can bring ants inside if you have too many in your yard. A dog that loves to roll around in the grass can pick up ants in their fur.
Not only will that be irritating to your dog’s skin from ant bites, but the ants will have a ride to the inside of your house.
This can lead to a very unwanted ant infestation. To prevent these situations from happening, let’s learn how to kill off your lawn ants.
How To Kill The Ants in Your Yard
Whether you want to take precautions or are noticing too many ant hills popping up in your yard, there are ways to kill those ants off so that they don’t become a problem.
There are killing methods that focus on harsher chemicals for tougher situations and there are gentler options that are safe to use around produce and animals.
We will go over several methods so you can choose the one that will work the best for you and your lawn.
Rake Those Ant Hills
Ant hills are where hundred of ants make their home and have tunnels that reach the surface. While it may seem too simple to work, raking (and therefore destroying) ant hills is a great first step to disrupting the lives of ants.
Not only will you have damaged their home, but you also opened up their tunnels for other methods that will kill more ants easier. It’s harder to hide from rain when you don’t have a roof over your head.
Soap and Water
Another simple method that can do wonders for killing off ants. This is a great method if you are having problems near your vegetable garden or have animals that like to roll around in the grass. It’s gentle to the surroundings but harsh on ants.
To do this method, make a 1:1 mixture of hot water and dish soap (or an eco-friendly soap if you are concerned about your grass.)
One way to go about this method is to dump this mixture on top of any ant hills that you find, drowning many ants in the process.
Another way to use this method is to spray this mixture all over the yard. The soap will work to kill off the ants so you don’t have to worry about drowning every single one.
Baby Powder
Baby powder will do the same thing as baking soda, only this won’t harm grass. In this article, we are going to avoid using ant killers that will do too much harm to your grass and lawn.
Sprinkle baby powder all around ant hills, ant trails, or anywhere else that ants like to congregate in your yard.
Baby powder does two things to kill ants:
- When on top of an ant, the particles of baby powder will block their breathing and end up suffocating the ants.
- If an ant digests some baby powder, its stomach will react harshly to the chemical and it will kill the ants.
This method will work if you repeat the process and don’t let any ants escape.
Ant Baits
Ant baits are the first step to using harsher chemicals without damaging your lawn. You can buy these baits online or in any hardware store.
Place them all around your lawn, both near and far from ant hills. Over time, ants will step on these baits and get stuck, starving to death and dying.
You will need to replace these baits as these get full and make sure all corners of the yard are covered so the ants don’t simply migrate.
Insecticide
If all else fails, it might be time to break out the insecticide. If you have animals, children, or produce, it is best to avoid insecticides as much as you can.
However, if those ants aren’t going away no matter what you do, it might be time to bring out the big guns: ant killing spray.
You can find ant killer in almost any store. There are liquid killers that you will spray in the ant hills and around the area.
You might also like: Claiming Back Your Yard: 10 Best Ant Killers For Yards
If you don’t want to spray anything, you can buy granular ant killers that you will sprinkle around as you would do with the baby powder.
BE CAREFUL WITH GRANULAR, other animals might try to eat it and it can be poisonous to them. Try to find a killer that is animal safe and human-safe if you have a family.
4 Tips and Reminders for Killing Ants in Your Lawn
Not many people like to deal with ants, so understandably, you want to kill off all those ants as quickly as possible.
For extra speed, follow these tips and reminders when dealing with ants in your lawn.
Repetition is Key
With many of these methods, doing it one time might not be enough.
Especially if you are using natural methods, you will want to repeat those methods at least once a week until you notice results. Ants like to hide underground and so it will take time to get to even the sneakiest of ants.
If you repeat a method several times a week for several weeks and don’t see changes, move to a different method.
Use Several Methods
When you use several methods, you are adding more kinds of weapons to your arsenal.
An ant colony might get used to fighting off one kind of killing method and it won’t work as well anymore. By combining methods, they won’t be able to escape all of the attacks.
Be aware of which methods you are combining, however. Using soapy water with granular insecticide won’t work as well because the water would wash away some of the ant killers. Combine methods that won’t cancel each other out.
Keep the Grass Short
Don’t forget to keep up with mowing your lawn during these times. Long grass can hide ant hills and give them a safer environment.
This will make it harder for any of the above methods to infiltrate the ant hills and kill more ants. Mowing the lawn will expose more ant hills and possibly destroy the tops of them depending on their height.
Mow your lawn once a week to both effectively expose any ants and to keep your lawn remaining healthy.
Using some of the above methods right after you mow can help disturb the ants in your lawn even more.
If in Doubt, Call an Exterminator
Don’t get too discouraged if nothing seems to work. If you have tried everything you possibly could and still aren’t seeing results, it might be time to call up an exterminator.
Make sure to know if you have any produce growing in your garden, have animals that hang in the lawn, or children that still have the habit of eating things they shouldn’t.
That way, the exterminator can use the product that will kill your ants but keep you and your family safe.
Final Thoughts
Ants aren’t fun and having an infestation outside your home can be just as bad as having one inside the home.
Now you have a collection of killing tools to add to your arsenal to kill any ants that you might run into.
Even though it’s not fun to have a ton of ants in your yard, there isn’t a reason to get too stressed out because now you know what you can do.
Keep your yard and household safe by keeping it ant-free. If you have found this article helpful and tried out these methods, let us know how they have helped in the comments below.
Give a helping hand by sharing this article with anyone who has been struggling with lawn ants.
