Seriously considering artificial lawn due to ants!

[Metalhead]

We have a real problem with red ants in our back garden, and it seems to be getting worse each year despite our best efforts to kill the fuckers with every ant killer available! The kids keep getting bitten and it really spoils our enjoyment of the outside space. I’m therefore seriously considering putting down fake lawn, as presumably the little fuckers can’t get through the underlay? Would it look really awful though...? And is it expensive to get it done?

No help on the fake lawn but just to let you know my garden is totally paved and we still have ants :(

Oh no, that’s not what I wanted to hear!

I have got a piece of fake grass 3m x 4m, cost £600 plus vat, made from recycled materials and can be recycled at the end of its life (which was a more expensive option than some of the others). I wasn’t convinced at all when my landscaper suggested it but I really like it and the fact it is work free. Looks and feels more realistic than I thought it would.

They'll just go round it!

But it is breathable as water has to go through it so I don’t think it would stop your ants.

I doubt fake lawn would help - have you tried a professional rentokil type person? Might be worth a go and lots cheaper than artificial grass!

Fake lawn won’t stop ants. You need to call pest control.
We had them and it took a few years of visits every spring to get rid of them.

Get a couple of chickens, those beady eyed beasts will solve your ant problem.

Damn it, and I thought I’d found a solution!

AngelasAshes I phoned Rentokil but the man said it would cost
£600 and they’d just come back next year! He basically said there’s not much point in him coming out of we’re already using the bait stations etc.

We have the same problem with the blighters. They make little mounds that then cut open by the mower

We have to warn people not to go barefoot on the grass

I'd have thought you may end up getting more ants with a fake lawn. They seem to like to hide under things, I always see loads of them under the path that borders my lawn. If it's a small area you coul pour boiling water over them but it may just move the problem to a different area.

This year we have hardly any at all, I have a wilded, organic garden and the wild life must eat them I suppose! We never did have the red ones though. it's best to go the natural way, to get rid, in the last years I used pythrethrum sprays which worked well.

Have you tried the nematodes that are specially for ants? I don’t have red ones but we’ve used nematodes for slugs that worked fantastically so I’m curious if you’ve tried?

I’d never heard of nematodes before Garden, will give them a try!

We have lots of birds come into our garden but they don’t seem interested in the ants.

@Metalhead the brand is nemasys I think. We got the slug ones on amazon. I know they do an ant one too.

I just had an idea; have you tried herbal sprays? I used to use a cedar spray it repelled them, you can make your own in an old spray bottle ; buy some cedar ess. oil and add about 12 drops to the bottle of water.

We have artificial grass.
we had lots of ants before. The artificial looks great UNTIL the ants carry on making nests and be have about 10 mounds in the garden under the grass now. Mounds are so bad they have moved the grass and the join is coming apart due to this. We really don’t know what to do now.

Would you consider encouraging wildlife to eat them instead? A few bird feeders/ nest boxes to encourage them in would be a cheaper and nicer option perhaps. Smaller songbirds such as wrens and sparrows are great at clearing any ant hills I've uncovered when gardening. In the spring when they're feeding young they can get through thousands a day.

Good on the ants for sabotaging artificial grass 😂

ants used to dig holes under and around our fake grass. It will not solve the issue