ant hills in our yard

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  • ilovemyboysx3
    ilovemyboysx3 Posts: 12
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    Wish you lived close! We'd kill 'em! We have a pest control company. To really remedy the problem and not just cause them to move, you should call a pest company.
  • leomom72
    leomom72 Posts: 1,797 Member
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    thanks everyone..im definite they ARE ants..im wanting to kill them because we have young kids and animals playing here, and i dont want any of them to get bitten by a mass of them..luckily we live in a rental house, the the company we rent from pays for it, but last time we had them spray for bugs, it was a half-@$$ed job..i appreciate all the input so far:smile:
  • jworb
    jworb Posts: 146 Member
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    when I was a kid, my brother and I put firecrackers in the holes.... great way to end up with MORE ant hills (Texas fire ants). I don't recommend. We never really got rid of ours, so I don't know of any solutions but good luck!
  • Trechechus
    Trechechus Posts: 2,819 Member
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    Sounds like termites if they are flying.

    Part of the definition of an insect is the presence of wings. Queen ants have them and male ants have them, but since they are used pretty much as breeding stock only, we hardly ever seem them. The wingless worker and guard ants don't exhibit the wings in most ant species, but are the members of the colony that we always see.

    Ants are fascinating. Please don't kill them unless you have to.
  • Trechechus
    Trechechus Posts: 2,819 Member
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    thanks everyone..im definite they ARE ants..im wanting to kill them because we have young kids and animals playing here, and i dont want any of them to get bitten by a mass of them..luckily we live in a rental house, the the company we rent from pays for it, but last time we had them spray for bugs, it was a half-@$$ed job..i appreciate all the input so far:smile:

    Ah, yes. I see. This could be a problem.
  • RobynC79
    RobynC79 Posts: 331 Member
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    Ants can have wings - mature colonies produce winged reproductive adults that are distinct from the other castes. Which means you've got large, mature colonies. So you can be proud of your excellent ant-raising skills, I guess.

    If they are a problem, get a pest control company to kill them. Boiling water will cool long before it gets to the hatcheries, so you might kill a few but not the majority. You'll just make them wet, and ants are pretty good at dealing with floods. Same with hot oil, which will just mess up your soil. Ant baits are slow to work and only really good for when you can't find the colony.

    I would get pest control to come, and then talk to them about environmentally-sound options.
  • VelociMama
    VelociMama Posts: 3,119 Member
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    thanks everyone..im definite they ARE ants..im wanting to kill them because we have young kids and animals playing here, and i dont want any of them to get bitten by a mass of them..luckily we live in a rental house, the the company we rent from pays for it, but last time we had them spray for bugs, it was a half-@$$ed job..i appreciate all the input so far:smile:

    We have fire ants down here that make huge mounds in our yard all the time, and I'm allergic to them. Home Depot makes a pellet that destroys the mound, but unfortunately, since all the neighbors have fire ants, they end up back in our yard eventually. We have to treat the new mounds about once every other week or so.

    See if you can get a long-acting pest abatement program going with an exterminator if you can.
  • chocoholicdiva
    chocoholicdiva Posts: 345 Member
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    Did you say black and flying? Emmets. They just fly around during mating time. Yeah, they're huge suckers, they're a nuisance, but they're mostly harmless. My city had a big amount take over one summer. But we've had problems with regular sized black ant hills in our back yard several summers ago. Last summer we finally had to use some Raid on the ant hill - several times over!!! It's nasty stuff, but let's just say that we haven't seen a single ant or hill this year. Very happy about that!!! No emmets this year, either.
  • AllTehBeers
    AllTehBeers Posts: 5,030 Member
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    when I was a kid, my brother and I put firecrackers in the holes.... great way to end up with MORE ant hills (Texas fire ants). I don't recommend. We never really got rid of ours, so I don't know of any solutions but good luck!

    My brother and I did this too! I don't know if it killed any of them, but it sure was fun.
  • leomom72
    leomom72 Posts: 1,797 Member
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    when I was a kid, my brother and I put firecrackers in the holes.... great way to end up with MORE ant hills (Texas fire ants). I don't recommend. We never really got rid of ours, so I don't know of any solutions but good luck!

    my 30 year old husband still does this..he did it with a wasp nest over the summer when the babies or whatever they are technically called were about to hatch..he made sure the parents were gone first :laugh:
  • KCoolBeanz
    KCoolBeanz Posts: 813 Member
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    oooohhh ant hills are my specialty! Get some dishsoap. Pour some straight down the hole and some in visible cracks. Then get a pail of super hot water (a couple kettlefulls of boiling, if possible) and mix with some more dish soap. Dump it over the top of the anthill, and follow it up with a couple more pails. You might have to do it a couple of times over a week, but I promise you those buggers won't come back!
  • dougt333
    dougt333 Posts: 697
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    FIRE my dad used to dig a whole with a pvc pipe, load it with gas and light that sucker up. overkill...sure but come on Fire is cool.

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