Ants are annoying inside of your home, and even when they’re outdoors, ants can damage your yard. Field ants, farming ants, and army ants can all damage your grass if the situation is left untreated.
Field Ants
Field ants are not a specific species of ant. Rather, the term field ants refers to various species of ants that like to live in lawns and fields.
What They Look Like
Field ants can vary a lot in appearance since they encompass a variety of different species. Field ants are usually about a fourth of an inch long, and they vary in color, from red to black to brown. Field ants are the type of ants most people think of when they picture ants.
How They Damage Your Yard
Field ants live inside of mounds. These mounds often start underground but then push up the soil to create visible mounds in your yard. These mounds are large, spanning up to two feet.
Field ants’ mounds damage the grass. They destroy the grass’s root structures, causing brown spots to develop in the greenery. Ant mounds can also make the surface of your grass uneven and tougher to mow.
How to Treat Field Ants
Field ants can live for years, so it is important to get them out of your yard. Applying insecticide directly to their mounds is the most effective means to kill field ants. If you are uncomfortable doing this on your own, our ant control experts at Dave’s Pest Control would be happy to help. You can contact our pest control team here.
Farming Ants
Farming ants are another broad category that includes numerous ant species. Farming ants are capable of secreting hormones that attract other insects, which the farming ants use as a food source.
Aphids are one of the primary insects that farming ants attract. Aphids produce honeydew, which has sugar in it, and aphids are detrimental to the health of your yard.
What They Look Like
Similar in appearance to field ants, farming ants are small and can vary in color from red to brown to black.
How They Damage Your Yard
Farming ants’ relationship with aphids is the aspect of farming ants that cause the most harm to your yard. Aphids feed on plants and thrive on new growth, so they can eat up and destroy your yard. Aphids can also destroy nearby vegetation and transmit viruses. While farming ants may not be directly harmful to your yard, they attract company (aphids) that are. This is why it’s important to practice ant control to remove the farming ants from your property before they have a chance to bring harmful aphids to your yard.
How to Treat Farming Ants
Applying insecticide directly to farming ants’ homes is one way to kill them. Another way to kill farming ants is by getting rid of their food source, aphids. Horticultural oil and insecticidal soap kill aphids, and dish soap mixed with water can remove aphids from plants as well.
Army Ants
Army ants are the most destructive ants to have in your yard. Army ants are a very aggressive species that are most commonly found in the Southern United States.
What They Look Like
Army ants are surprisingly small and can be dark-brown and gold in color. While army ants can be small, they can grow to be much larger and have stingers and hooks.
How They Damage Your Yard
Army ants generally move around, so they don’t damage your yard via mounds in the same way field ants do. Army ants move together in large groups and kill all of the foliage in an area. A group of army ants can eat and destroy entire sections of your yard, killing the grass.
Army ants’ power comes in numbers, with colonies including thousands of ants. Army ants attack insects and plants by swarming them in large groups.
Army ants also bite things that get in their way, and their bites are often painful and itchy. If your yard is infested with army ants, you may have a hard time enjoying it until they are dealt with.
How to Treat Army Ants
Dust pesticides, traps, and liquid insecticides are three different ways to treat army ants. You can also ask a pest control professional to get rid of the army ants in your yard so you don’t have to put yourself in harm’s way.
If you are spotting a lot of ants in your yard, contact the pest control experts at Dave’s Pest Control. Our ant control experts can identify, get rid of the ants in your yard, and prevent them from getting into your home.
Have ants in your home?
If you reside anywhere in central or south Florida and have ants in your home, feel free to call us. We have been providing pest control in Port Orange, Lakeland, Orlando, Sanford, Davie, Boynton Beach, Pompano Beach and other areas of Florida.
