aroundtheyard.com Forums

With y'alls help, my yard has come a long way since I first bought my house in 2014. I still have issues with ants though. So far, my only method of fighting them is reactionary, I see a mound and put down Ortho. Can anyone suggest a more proactive method of dealing with ants? Thanks!

I had pretty decent success with the Ortho Max broadcast granules last year. I'd put it out on the lawn every couple of months. Simply treating the mounds is a losing battle.

Thank you Yossarian, I'll give that a try. Do you put that down throughout the entire yard, or only around the perimeter?

Just use a spreader and cover the whole yard with it and then water it in. I think the active ingredient is Bifenthrin.

Bifen XTS is a concentrate spray that works well for whole yard coverage.

Bifen XTS on Amazon

I have struggled with Ants every year since buying this house. We have used bifenthrin (in all forms) many times and the ants seem to disappear for maybe a week and then return. This past year I purchased http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/tauru ... -1816.html to "treat my foundation for termites".... ....and we have now been ant free for over 6 months. I'm sure they will be back at some point this year, but at least I know how to get rid of them.

I've been using Bifen(Talstar) for several years and it kills the ants and they don't come back.
It's a residual and should stay in the soil for 3-4 months. If applied correctly it means every targeted insect that travels through that dirt during that time.....dies

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Bifenthrin is a contact poison only. Fipronil is contact and bait. The ants will carry it back to the nest and kill the nest too.

With the ants here, I could spray bifenthrin, imidacloprid, cyfluthrin - didn't matter. 3-4 DAYS and the ants would be back in the exact same place. The fipronil worked like a charm. Bifenthrin is cheaper, so if it works for you that is great. If it doesn't, you can always order fipronil.

[ Post made via Android ]

good info also. It is possible in certain circumstances for insects to develop resistances to pesticides and in that reached it's good to have options.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Thanks for the information guys. With the Taurus Termiticide, do you broadcast spray that, or just spray around your foundation?

And I think I'll start with the Ortho Max since I have to run to Lowes today anyways, and if that doesn't work I'll go from there.

Anything that you buy at Lowe's or Home Depot will be more expensive over the long haul as the active ingredient percentages are much lower than the "professional" products that you can order.

Taurus is labelled for spraying the foundation only. I seem to recall that it "might" have gotten mixed "accidentally" into a broadcast spray though...

For the record, if you have a professional yard treatment for fire ants, they will use fipronil (which also kills other bugs like spiders, crickets, cockroaches, centipedes, ticks, etc.

Very valid point Spammage, thank you. When you broadcast spray, do you dye your water to make sure you get everything? Whenever I broadcast spray, I always miss areas. I sprayed Celsius Herbecide a couple of weeks ago, ended up with two strips across my entire yard that I missed...

I don't when spraying insecticide, fungicide or pre-emergent. I do when spraying post-emergent herbicide like Celsius, because the tolerances for turf injury are a little tighter.

Spammage, I bought the Taurus Termiticide, I just did .8oz per gallon per 1,000sqft. Is that how you put it down?

I used the heaviest dose at 1.6oz/ gal simply because nothing else had worked. Normally I would already be seeing them again in the Spring, but still nothing thus far. Hopefully it works as well for you too.

[ Post made via Android ]

Okay, I'll try that on the backyard this weekend.

I work in pest control and just about anything with fipronil as the active ingredient will do well with ants.

As far as termiticides, depending on what part of the country you're in, I'd be pretty skeptical about surface treatments for termites. In north Texas where I live, we have subterranean termites and a surface spray won't do a thing for them. It could leave a residual near the foundation assuming that's where the termites try to enter the home, but be mindful to often check any plumbing penetrations into the house and keep an eye out for foundation cracks or anything of that nature. Termites need a hole 1/32" to get in, so it really doesn't take much.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Yesterday, after dethatch & cleanup (as part of my overseed ritual), I also may have accidently put some Taurus SC in to a tank of water and possibly/accidently sprayed at 1.2 oz/1,000 to fight ants. Not sure if ants 'round these parts just don't respond to granules well, but I had treated with granules 2X already this year. The heat, drought, and EPIC ant hills really did a number on the yard this year.

I've really tried to avoid using pesticides. In fact, I've rarely used them at all in the last 8 years at this house. I didn't spray any in the backyard - I have a dynasty of opossums that live here and I want to make sure they've got plenty to eat!

Unsure why the ants are so numerous this year. They aren't fire ants, or even the black/red ants. Just the tiny little brown ones... with a really solid work ethic.

PW405, what do the ants seem to be attracted to? And what bothers you about them? Except for fire ants, I haven't had an ant problem in decades, but prior to that I did have some ants.

Off the ant topic, I see you have both bermuda and fescue. What grass are you overseeding and dethatching this time of year?