How to get rid of a Red Ants nest in the lawn ?

chris

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We have just discovered we have a Red Ants nest in the middle of our lawn, it looks like a mole hill and having 2 young kids that play in the garden we need to get rid of the nest fast before it spreads to other parts of the lawn and garden. Anyone got any tips or tricks to get rid please ?

Cheers
Chris.
 

sonnetpete

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Sadly Chris, I haven't. We have had red ants in our meadow before and they sting like bu**ery. Concensus from a quick google seems to be boiling water as a 'quick fix' and boiling water with essential oils repeated quite a few times as a longer term solution. Oils used were peppermint, rosemary and lavender.......Just remember you're not trying to give them a relaxing massage.
 

rolfw

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Yep, boiling water two or three times a day will do it.
 

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Dynamite :D


Oh no thats removing unwanted buildings



Another vote for boiling water
 

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Rather than kill them, you can tempt them to live elsewhere by giving them a trail of sugary water from their current location to a plate of sugar in one of the flowerbeds nearby. If you replenish the supply a couple of times they will eventually move closer.
 

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An absolute foolproof method for clearing ants, bees, wasps all kinds of creepy crawlers.

Explained to me many years ago by a farmer.

Unfortunately its a two part process.

Firstly isolate the infested area and identify exactly where the center of the nest is.

Spray a low octane petrol mist over the center of the nest.

Wait for a few minutes to check that the petrol smell has driven off the crawlers or fliers.

If there is still a large number of insects you will need to increase the amount of deterrent.

Carefully pour the low octane petrol around the perimeter of the nest.

Ensure that the petrol barrier is complete.

Step two is to stand well back and put a match to the petrol barrier.

After a few minutes there should be no crawlers left.

The reason why you use low octane petrol is that it is cheaper and you might have to administer a second dose later in the day.
 

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Boiling water or petrol - I think chris can say bye bye to a good part of his lawn!
 

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Channel Hopper said:
Rather than kill them, you can tempt them to live elsewhere by giving them a trail of sugary water

Go on...you'll be offering them a government grant next.....
 

chris

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Thanks everyone, a kettle full of boiling water just poured over the ants nest, cant see them liking that very much ! As to petrol bombing the garden find i'll give that a miss.
 

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Bit late now, but Diatomaceous earth kills bugs effectively without having to kill the surrounding plant life... :)

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth

Although, petrol bombing the gits is quite fun... :D
 

chris

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That did the trick, poured boiling water on yesterday and this morning stuck the garden fork in the nest and no ants appeared so result. Thanks everyone.
 
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