Serious outdoor ant problem

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Old Jun 26, 2006 | 05:43 PM
  #1  
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Serious outdoor ant problem

It's gotten so bad that every 2 days the bottom of our pool is black, and the pool liner is green!

We're getting a new liner installed right now, and our pool is in-ground. Looking at the sidewalls I discovered that the ants are digging really deep. They've dug a huge network a little more than the depth of the shallow end (1.5m). We have ant hills springing up in random places all over the lawn. When I lift up the cement blocks for our walkway, each one has hundreds and hundreds of ants running around under there, and that's just what we can see.

I'm starting to think they've invaded the entire yard! What could I possibly do to mitigate the problem even by half? My dad tried ant traps, but that hardly makes a dent in their population. We tried flooding the hills with chemicals and water but they don't go deep enough to get all the ants or the queen, because several days later the hill is rebuilt and they're back. I don't know what to do.
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Old Jun 26, 2006 | 05:46 PM
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Old Jun 26, 2006 | 05:47 PM
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This is like the 3rd thread in the past week about ant problems. Weird.

Maybe we should be merging these
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Old Jun 26, 2006 | 05:47 PM
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Or maybe its an invasion
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Old Jun 26, 2006 | 06:15 PM
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https://acurazine.com/forums/home-garden-37/ants-342399/

Check out post #4.

Also, if you have an in-ground pool, isn't the pool liner concrete?
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Old Jun 26, 2006 | 07:38 PM
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Typically a pool liner is vinyl.

Gunnited pools don;t have a liner.
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Old Jun 27, 2006 | 01:49 AM
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Originally Posted by pmptx
Typically a pool liner is vinyl.

Gunnited pools don;t have a liner.
Phipark, it's vinyl. They last about 10 years before they need replacing. Parents bought the house in 1996 and got a new liner installed then as part of the deal. The cost is about $2200 including installation.

My question though is will the solutions for indoor ants/termites in Caliadria's thread work for a massive outdoor colony? I'm having my doubts.
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Old Jun 27, 2006 | 01:50 AM
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Originally Posted by BEETROOT
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Old Jun 27, 2006 | 11:50 AM
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Originally Posted by youngTL
Phipark, it's vinyl. They last about 10 years before they need replacing. Parents bought the house in 1996 and got a new liner installed then as part of the deal. The cost is about $2200 including installation.

My question though is will the solutions for indoor ants/termites in Caliadria's thread work for a massive outdoor colony? I'm having my doubts.
It doesn't hurt to spray them yourself. If it doesn't work, then you need to call an exterminator.
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Old Jun 27, 2006 | 03:12 PM
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Oof and I thought MY problem was bad...
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Old Jul 6, 2006 | 08:51 AM
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Have a similar problem wth ants hills all over the yard. They have set up piles of sand/dirt that actually sink in about 2-3 inches when I step in them while mowing the lawn. I've seen about 4 huge hills like this in both the front and back yard. Find a solution yet?
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Old Jul 6, 2006 | 08:33 PM
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Originally Posted by FuriousGeorge83
Have a similar problem wth ants hills all over the yard. They have set up piles of sand/dirt that actually sink in about 2-3 inches when I step in them while mowing the lawn. I've seen about 4 huge hills like this in both the front and back yard. Find a solution yet?
It's hopeless . We had a conversation with several neighbors of ours, and apparently it's a widespread problem here. They heard of other people in our area who have serious ant issues. We came to the conclusion that the colony is MASSIVE. There's nothing that can be done to a colony that size.
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Old Jul 6, 2006 | 09:17 PM
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Originally Posted by youngTL
There's nothing that can be done to a colony that size.
burn them.

sorry to hear about your problem.
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Old Jul 9, 2006 | 01:43 AM
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Originally Posted by youngTL
It's hopeless . We had a conversation with several neighbors of ours, and apparently it's a widespread problem here. They heard of other people in our area who have serious ant issues. We came to the conclusion that the colony is MASSIVE. There's nothing that can be done to a colony that size.
You can't get any exterminators to come over to take care of the problem?
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Old Jul 10, 2006 | 12:17 AM
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Originally Posted by Yumchah
You can't get any exterminators to come over to take care of the problem?
We phoned them last weekend, and they said that the people in the house kitty corner to us already called them for the same problem. They sprayed the people's yard and it didn't seem to have a huge effect on the ants. There weren't any seen for a couple days but they soon resurfaced. The exterminators said it's all they could do.

The neighbors also tried ant spikes. Those didn't work very well though. I guess we have to live with it.
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Old Jul 10, 2006 | 03:31 PM
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There has got to be a way to get rid of the ants. My lawn looks like total shit with brown patches everywhere ( dunno if its from the ants or not but eh thats my story and im sticking to it.
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Old Jul 10, 2006 | 03:49 PM
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Originally Posted by youngTL
We phoned them last weekend, and they said that the people in the house kitty corner to us already called them for the same problem. They sprayed the people's yard and it didn't seem to have a huge effect on the ants. There weren't any seen for a couple days but they soon resurfaced. The exterminators said it's all they could do.

The neighbors also tried ant spikes. Those didn't work very well though. I guess we have to live with it.


Holy crap.

My mom had a carpenter ant issue last year and the exterminators were able to do a pretty good job. Have you called around and explained this to other pest control services? I'm sure there is a way to do it...
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Old Jul 10, 2006 | 05:00 PM
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What's up with the ant problems people are having? This must be the 3rd thread maybe on this.

Turns out I am having a problem as well. I have been succesful at ridding them from the house - which I don't get why they were coming inside as we keep our house very clean - by using ant poison traps (the kind where they don't die right away but bring the poison back to the nest even though if I saw one I'd kill it right away those disgusting bastards!). We had tiny reddish ants crwaling under the siding of the house and after continued spraying that problem has slowly cleared up. Now we have them on the lawn at the foot of driveway, so the wife put out ant spikes, and now they are surfacing closer to the house on the lawn.
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Old Jul 15, 2006 | 02:24 PM
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I'm also starting to see the ants again this year, they were pretty bad last year getting into the house so I used those ant spikes outside and they actually worked very well. I think this year I'm going to try that Ortho stuff that was mentioned in one of the other threads.

Although Berra will be sad becuase one of her favorite activities is batting and stepping on the ants until the die
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Old Jul 16, 2006 | 10:31 PM
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i live in an area in fl where ants are common. To keep the away, first go to home depot or lowes and get a few bags or ortho max bug treatment and put alot of it whith one of those spreaders. When i mean alot i mean alot, i use 2 bags for my hose and it's on a lot of 100x100.

PS one bag is meant to cover 10,000 square feet.
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Old Jul 17, 2006 | 06:41 PM
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Originally Posted by csmeance
i live in an area in fl where ants are common. To keep the away, first go to home depot or lowes and get a few bags or ortho max bug treatment and put alot of it whith one of those spreaders. When i mean alot i mean alot, i use 2 bags for my hose and it's on a lot of 100x100.

PS one bag is meant to cover 10,000 square feet.
This might work! Now I have to convince my parents to spend the money.
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Old Jul 17, 2006 | 11:07 PM
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one bag is like 10 dollars. And you can buy the hand spreader thing for like 5-10 dollars. Estimaled cost for house $50.


p.s. you can do it ur self ( no pros needed)
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