Ants on my backyard

[Alan Rutherford]

My test for fire ants is to hold one end of a stick while you put the other into the top of the mound. If they come charging right up the stick, they're fire ants. Don't let them do that on your leg - or maybe you already know that.

There are lots of homegrown solutions for fire ants: boiling water, etc. etc. After you're tried them all, you'll find Amdro works. You only need to kill the queen but she's not easy to reach. The workers take the Amdro to the queen. Some approaches just annoy them so they pack up and move, but not far enough.

If they're not fire ants, I'd vote for live and let live.

[Myk Rian]

If they're not fire ants, I'd vote for live and let live.

Except wherever a mound is, the grass is dead. They eat any new seed you try to plant.

[David Helm]

Very few ant species in the US are problematic. Most are relatively benign and perform important services to the eco system. You don't want Carpenter ants, I suppose you don't want fire ants, you don't want moisture ants. All the rest are good critters.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

All the rest are good critters.

Only why on my backyard?
Plus ,as Myk Rian correctly said - mounds just spreading out and no grass in the area.
Ed.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I'd leave them alone, but that aluminum casting is pretty neat. It would be tempting...

[Alan Rutherford]

... I suppose you don't want fire ants....

You suppose correctly. I lived a long time in Seattle (i.e. near Bellingham) and never saw a fire ant until we moved to Florida a few years ago. They're invasive, are aptly named and have no legitimate part in our ecosystem. I'll escort a spider out of the house but my conscience has no problem with nuking fire ants.

[julian abram]

Might check out Termidor, most used for termites but effective on ants as well.

[Roger Rettenmeier]

Years ago, I lived in a cabin that i built with the help of many friends. Spent about 15 years there (24x24 with half loft). I had large red ants living in a stump about 15 ft from the cabin. The colony was still there when I moved. I spent my work week travelling, and one day in late spring I came home to an invasion of carpenter ants. I used some Ortho stuff with Diazanon? as the active ingredient. It worked great around the cabin. I back trailed the ants and destroyed the colony and satellite colonies. Carpenter ants can tear up some wood.