Who has green fingers? Advice needed...

MichaelDebeve

MichaelDebeve

Well-known member
Found an ant nest in my lawn, so applied some ant 'dust' that I purchased, which specifically said it was grass friendly and if applied with care shouldn't harm surrounding growth.

It lied 😂

Despite only applying less than the recommended amount, I now have approximately a metre radius of pretty sorry/ dead looking grass.

Any recommendations to try and breath some life back into it? Am I best introducing new seed? I really don't have a clue! Thanks

On the plus side, the ants have gone.
 
Firstly I am no gardening expert, in fact far from it.

If you are sure the ants have gone due to the chemical dust applied, it would seem some contamination has occurred. Can you flush the dust away with a hose, or dig away some of the soil and replace the soil with new and then re-seed? Like I say, certainly no expert gardener, its just what i’d try.
 
coluka said:
Firstly I am no gardening expert, in fact far from it.

If you are sure the ants have gone due to the chemical dust applied, it would seem some contamination has occurred. Can you flush the dust away with a hose, or dig away some of the soil and replace the soil with new and then re-seed? Like I say, certainly no expert gardener, its just what i’d try.
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Yeah, this. Don't water it though as you may leech the contaminant further into the soil.
 
It's about time we had another eco horror movie about super ants . This one really shook me up. Probably watched it on TV at around 11yr old. '81 ish Was scared for years lol.

Phase IV (1974 film)​

PhaseIV.png
 
Don't use any dust it is a contact poison - they'll just move the brood and establish another nest nearby. You want bait traps and ant granules that they take back to the nest as food, which causes the whole nest to die after the queen eats it and dies.

Id probably say flush it with water, give it a few days, seed it, keep it very wet until germination, then once established fertilise it
 
Rolawn, the turf people, say that using ant powder can scorch the lawn as you have found.

So it maybe that it is scorched and the roots are OK. I would water the area and leave it to see if it recovers.

Now is not the best time to reseed but could be done for a small area if you kept it watered. Otherwise leave it and if it does not recover reseed in September. You can buy a reseed mix for patches which has coir in it which may be better than just applying seed alone. It germinates better if lightly covered.

When I apply ant powder to the lawn I find the entrance hole, enlarge it a little and pour the powder down there rather than scattering it over the area.
 
Millbrook said:
Rolawn, the turf people, say that using ant powder can scorch the lawn as you have found.

So it maybe that it is scorched and the roots are OK. I would water the area and leave it to see if it recovers.

Now is not the best time to reseed but could be done for a small area if you kept it watered. Otherwise leave it and if it does not recover reseed in September. You can buy a reseed mix for patches which has coir in it which may be better than just applying seed alone. It germinates better if lightly covered.

When I apply ant powder to the lawn I find the entrance hole, enlarge it a little and pour the powder down there rather than scattering it over the area.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this.

Scorch is definitely the right word, the centre of ground zero is literally black! So even though I thought I was being careful, I have obviously over done it.

Good advice about the re-seeding though - will plough on with watering first.

Thanks Millbrook
 
Water it and try to keep the lawn moist, but not saturated. The grass should come back to life pretty soon if it gets a decent bit of sunlight. Grass seed should help too, I'd probably spread them all over to prevent having a patch that doesn't match the rest. As someone mentioned previously, if you really need to get rid of the ants use a bait trap rather than the powder.
 
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