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New Ant Hill on top of Grass Seedlings

9 years ago

I put down a layer of topsoil in my front lawn before putting down grass seed in an area that previously did not have grass. The grass seedlings have begun sprouting. This morning I noticed that a 2 foot wide ant hill had sprung up right in the middle of the new top soil. Any way to get rid of the ants that are there without hurting the new grass?

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Comments (2)

User
9 years ago
Sorry, missed this one.

For most ant species, ignoring them is the best thing to do. They won't harm the grass, and in fact they do a fantastic job aerating the surrounding soil.

If you're talking fire ants? Kill them now.

However, if they completely annoy you, any off the shelf ant killer for that species of ant should take them out. On sprouts, some damage on new grass is almost assured, and there's no way around that.
purslanegarden
9 years ago
I like to use Spectracide Fire Ant (or Ant Mound) killer granules. Just follow directions and the hill of little dry dirt granules will soon become a regular dirt mound that will eventually erode back into the ground, and no hill will be visible. Well, I do have to give a caveat -- I've never used it on hills that are 2-feet in size. I usually catch the ants (or ant variety) before they make such a large hill.
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I used Spectracide last year. I had to use an amount much more than the directions say. The recommended amount had no effect on the ants. Finally they went away, but they're back this year! Where do they come from??? A lawn guy told me that rain will wash away the anthill once the ants are dead. I don't think the hill ever totally went away and obviously neither did the ants :(
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