Hi all, this is my first time posting here. We moved into a home that once summer came, was ridden with ants. I’m talking 1000s and hills and active colonies all over the yard to the point we couldn’t even enjoy being in our own yard. The grass is some crab grass, some clover and just general common grass (? forgive me for not knowing types) but slightly sparse. We also have a large birch tree that I believe attracts much of them as I could see last summer had signs of aphids.

This is what we tried:

\- diatomaceous earth (they just went through it or around it)

\- small bait sticks (some took them but not enough to wipe them out or move them away)

\- corn meal (some took, most ignored)

\- boiling water directly onto active areas (this worked the best but then killed the lawn there)

This year I’m trying to be proactive in hopes of not having this happen again. There is a list of things that need care in and out of our house that I know will also help but we have to be reasonable with our budget.

I’d like to fill in divots/low spots in our lawn and over-seed the entire lawn to get some more turf to grow.

We also plan on starting a garden, have kids and a dog so I am not interested in insecticides right now.

I’m hoping with this info and this community we can receive some recs to reign in this reign of ant terror this year. Thank you all!

Ants all over lawn last year, want to be proactive this year, 4b Minnesota