Ants can be an annoying pest to deal with if they have formed a colony on your lawn. They’re small, hardy, and grow in number quite quickly.
Whilst using insecticides might seem like the best way of killing ants in your lawn, there are some issues with doing this. Chemical pest control can kill off other insects that are beneficial for your lawn, and can cause unwanted environmental damage through water run-off. It’s best to avoid using pesticides on grass your children and pets play on.
In this video, we’ll explain how to get rid of ants in your lawn, the eco-friendly, natural way.
Here are the best methods to get rid of ants in grass naturally.
1. Soapy water
You can use a 3% soap and water mixture to create a natural insecticide, using washing up liquid to make the solution. Put the soapy water inside a spray bottle, and target any ant nests and ant trails you can see. You can be quite liberal with the spray - soapy water won’t harm your grass, so you don’t have to worry about using too much.
Ants will die if exposed to water. Normally, their exoskeleton protects them against moisture in the soil. However, the soap breaks down this layer of protection, allowing the water inside.
2. Boiling water
You can also try to pour boiling water into each individual ant hill you see, as a simpler solution. However, you need to be careful not to use too much boiling water, and you must avoid pouring it onto the grass itself. Pouring hot water onto your lawn can scald it, causing the grass to turn brown, and leaving bald patches.
The water will flow down the tunnels in the ant nest, reaching the entire colony. The extreme heat from the boiling water will then kill the ants.
3. Diatomaceous earth
Diatomaceous earth is a type of fine, sedimentary soil that ants don’t like, that is perfectly safe to use in your garden. In fact, it has a lot of nutrients that are beneficial for your lawn.
You want to buy what’s known as food-grade diatomaceous earth, which is safe for human consumption - meaning it’s safe for your kids as well. You don’t need to buy a huge bag - you only want to spread a small amount in and around any ant hill you see.
Diatomaceous earth is a well-known natural insecticide. It works in two ways: firstly, it’s sharp enough for ants that they can actually be killed just by walking on it. The particles can penetrate the ants’ exoskeleton, eventually killing them. The substance can also impede ants’ movement to the extent that they get dehydrated and die. However, it can be quite slow to act. Using soapy water will likely be a quicker way of killing ants on your lawn.
4 - Baby Powder or Baking Soda
Even using something such as baby powder or baking soda will help you to get rid of ants in your lawn. You might not have known this, but ants breathe through their exoskeletons.
Substances such as baby powder and baking soda can work to clog up their airways and this will kill the ants.
Placing baby powder or baking soda around the area where you’re seeing ants will do the trick. You can pour it on an anthill to take care of a large number of ants at once. If you have a lot of baby powder at your house, then this is a practical way to deal with your problem.
Baking soda works just as well as baby powder and it’s very likely that you will have access to one of these two items.
This method isn’t necessarily the most effective, but it may be the most convenient.
There are some other ways to kill ants, but these may harm your lawn.
• White vinegar can kill ants but the acidity in vinegar will affect the pH in your topsoil, and make your lawn look worse.
• Salt will also kill plants, including your grass, if used in a large enough quantity.
• Chilli powder is supposed to kill ants, but it’s not great for your lawn, and will make your pets sick if they decide to taste it.
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