Mowing anthills

diesel85 · Jan 19, 2023

My father told me once, when he worked a farm down in TN, that the old man rigged up a chemical injected flail mower. So when when it got used, you could also use herbicides or insecticides while using it to mow.

It had holes drilled in it for nozzles, and when you used the flail mower, the air flow evenly distributed the chemical inside the flail mower.

Apparently it worked well for both applications.

spruce Deere · Jan 19, 2023

Bifenthrin drench method= dead ant hill/nest. Removal of your choice.

Mowing, knocking over has not worked for me.

duffer · Jan 19, 2023

spruce Deere said:
Bifenthrin drench method= dead ant hill/nest. Removal of your choice.

Mowing, knocking over has not worked for me.

Agree that knocking/running over won't do any good.

I haven't had to "drench" the hills, but it might be that by spraying my entire acreage helps prevent them from even starting. Bifenthrin is also great at killing army worms, grubs, and a bunch of other pests.

jyoutz · Jan 19, 2023

S854 said:
I recently purchased a flail mower For use on our CUT. Our property has numerous ant hills (12-18” tall) hidden in our grasses/weeds/alfalfa.

Many years ago, as a budding 12 year old entrepreneur, I earned spending money tearing up my dads powered reel mower on our neighbors yards. The most vivid recollection I have from that time was of running over an anthill and spraying myself with ants which were kicked up by the spinning reel… I also recall it wasn’t a lot of fun wearing an “ant suit”…

The ant hills I’m dealing with today are considerably taller than the one of my youth, most of these could be seen and avoided... I’m worried about the one I don’t see.

Is my shiny new flail going to send ants flying in my direction if I’m unfortunate enough to hit one of these hills? If so, are there any recommendations to “plow down” those hills before they’re hit with the spinning hammers? (Running with the FEL just above ground level?)

I’ve read where I can encourage the ants to move by repeatedly disturbing their mounds (scraping them to ground level with my box blade)… so that’s in my future plans, but there’s always that one hill I don’t see hovering around in the back of my mind.

Knock them down with the loader bucket, then mow over them. Then come back with ant bait and treat the anthill. It usually requires 2 bait treatments because the first time kills the ants, then the eggs hatch to repopulate the mound.

ROUSTABOUT · Jan 19, 2023

Has anybody tried plain old TIDE washing detergent? Lot safer.

jyoutz · Jan 19, 2023

ROUSTABOUT said:
Has anybody tried plain old TIDE washing detergent? Lot safer.

In high school, we would dump a box of Tide into the town fountain, then come back the next day to check out the awesome bubbles.

spruce Deere · Jan 20, 2023

Thinking back, I had success knocking down one ant nest....

I was clearing off the last of the to ugly no body wanted trees from one of our tree fields to replant. I was using my 1150 case dozer for the task when I found an ant nest I had forgotten about. I dug down into the dirt with the dozer blade as I pushed the mound over and spread everything out in every direction over a good portion of the two acre field.... They never did rebuilt.

Beeenvenue · Jan 20, 2023

I’m in Texas. Most of the solutions posted here don’t work on fire ants which also build mounds 12-18” high, at least in my clay soil

I run a 72” flail set pretty low and never look back. Great thing about a flail is it throws anything it hits out the back but only a few feet - nothing like a bushog.

Only thing I’ve found that works consistently is to treat them individually with orthene. Just did 14 acres of open prairie/pasture Jan 3rd and only have a few new hills since. Must have done several hundred - used 3-1/2 bottles of orthene and most of an afternoon, but I’m pleased with the results.

oosik · Jan 22, 2023

I have four types of ants. Tiny black( piss ants ) - red & black - standard black - carpenter ants. I seldom bother with any ants because they usually stay out in the "bush". However - if the need arises - I have an old bag of Diazanon that is still effective. Just the tiniest amount - sprinkled around - does the job.