Bill from Dameron, Maryland writes
Our yard has millions of ants I've heard called "thatch ants," but we're in Maryland and the descriptions I've read of thatch ants don't seem right. Ours are red with black abdomens, larger than 1/4" and they carry tiny fragments of leaves around with which they fill cracks in landscape timbers, and huge areas inside our outbuildings. But the ants themselves are literally everywhere. Disturbing any of their thatch causes them to boil out in large numbers. They don't sting, but they do bite with a relatively mild but uncomfortable bite. I'd like to keep them out of the outbuildings, but I don't particularly want to kill their nest or nests, wherever it/they may be. They seem to ignore diatomaceous earth completely.
You could potentially be dealing with leaf cutter ants in your yard and they are extremely hard to get rid of. Baits will not typically work because they creat their own food source. There are not any products that will only repel the ants and not kill them. If they are destroying plants you will need to eliminate the nests. Diatomaceous Earth is a very slow kill and they would have to walk through it to be killed by it. Deltagard granules would be a great option for treating the yard and the areas where the mounds are. Deltagard granules is one of the only products actually labeled for leaf cutter ants. The product label recommends treating the mound directly and lightly watering the granules in. Again it may take several treatments to get the desired results. We also recommend contacting your local cooperative extension office to see if they have any recommendations for products that have worked for other people in your region. Or you can drench the mounds with Bifen IT to try and eliminate the colony all at once.
Answer last updated on: 05/20/2014
