Field Ant Control: How to Get Rid of Field Ants

This page is a general field ant control guide. Using the products and methods suggested, you will get control of field ants. Follow this guide and use the recommended products; we guarantee 100% control of field ants.

Most ant species, except for the field ant, can nest within your home. Given its name, this ant is commonly found within residential yards and tends to venture but not stay in homes, seeking food and water. They are associated with the title field ants, but they go by many other names that reflect their outdoor nesting preference, like thatching ants, red ants, and wood ants.

The primary food source for field ants is honeydew, which insects like mealybugs and aphids produce. This food source helps increase the presence of field ants, which can produce severe damage to your lawn. Field ants create mounds on top or around grass blades, causing the lawn to become smothered, leading to discoloration and eventual death. Left untreated, these mounds can become impressively large, allowing the field ants to hide away from pesticide applications and increase colony size.

So long as field ants have consistent food sources such as honeydew and other insects and undisturbed grassy areas, they will thrive. With the increased presence of this ant species, your lawn can become unsightly in a short amount of time.

Though uncommon, the increased size of colony members also escalates the chances of homeowners becoming bitten when walking across their grass. To avoid unwanted field ant encounters, follow the listed steps and use professional-quality products promptly to get rid of these invasive turf pests.

Identification

Before conducting field ant control, you will need to ensure the infestation is field ants and not other ant species. Misidentification can lead to using the wrong treatment methods, costing you time and money. Here is a list of characteristics to properly identify field ants.

• Often confused with carpenter ants since they look strongly similar and come from the same subfamily of Formica and Camponotus. However, to tell the difference, you must look at their environment and thorax. The field ant has a notched thorax, whereas the carpenter ant has an evenly rounded thorax. Field ant nests are commonly found outdoors on the ground, while carpenter ant nests can be seen as tunnels within homes and other elevated wood sources like trees.
• Typically, field ants are a combination of either a solid brown, black, or red colors. They can also be red and black together. Though rare, this pest can also have a golden yellow coloration.
• In size, these ants range from 4 mm to 9 mm in length.
• A three-segmented body that is unevenly rounded on the upper side.
• In addition to two large black eyes, the field ant has three small eyes known as ocelli on the front of its head between the compound eyes.
• Circle of hairs at the tip of the abdomen.

Use the image and description above to help you correctly identify field ants in your lawn. If you are not entirely sure, contact us by phone, email, or in person at one of our store locations for a photo of your pest so we can assist you with proper identification. A pest sample may be brought as long as it's in a sealable plastic container.

Inspection

After field ants have been properly identified, you can proceed with inspection. During this step, you will locate sites of field ant infestations and the conditions allowing the ants to thrive. This will help you determine where to focus pesticide applications and avoid unnecessary product usage. Search during the day since this is when field ants are most active.

Where to Inspect

Most species of field ant build their ant mounds in the open soil or decaying wood. Field ants strictly build their nests outdoors. 

Common outdoor sites are underneath trees, logs, firewood piles, cement slabs, brick, stones, grass, along fencelines, in the cracks of pavement, and around home foundations and sidewalks.

They do not establish mounds indoors but will travel inside, searching for food or water. These ants are usually found in yards, fields, and wooded and landscape areas.

What to Look For

Field ant mounds are created from soil brought up from galleries below the nest, which gives the nest a granulated appearance. These nests may also have twigs, leaves, and grasses. 

Their mounds can be 1 to 4 feet wide and 2 feet tall in height. These dome-shaped mounds are rarely higher than grass blades.

Often, field ant mounds are mistaken for fire ant mounds due to the absence of an opening into the mound. 

Worker ants might also be spotted foraging for food on porches, sidewalks, around outdoor trashcans, and on any available sweets or meats. Though rare, if field ants travel into your home, they will most likely enter the kitchen or storage area where you keep your food products.

Their primary food source is honeydew, which is produced by aphids and scale insects. Some species are scavengers and will seek out meat. 

In late summer through fall, look out for swarms of winged alates, or reproductive ants. They fly out to mate and establish new colonies.

Treatment

Before proceeding with field ant control, you will need to wear the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) such as a long-sleeved shirt, gloves, mask, safety glasses, coveralls or tyvek suit, and closed-toe shoes with socks.

Unlike carpenter ants, field ants are most active during the day. Like most ant species, field ants will need to be treated at their nesting source and feeding areas.

Residual insecticides that have a long-lasting effect on treated areas will help to eliminate active or foraging field ants and ants that were not present at the time of application.

Step 1: Ant Mound Control with Ficam Insect Bait

The first thing to do to control field ants on your property is to use Ficam Insect Bait around their mounds. 

Ficam Insect Bait is an orthoboric granular bait that mimics food that the field ants would enjoy. The material is carried back into the nest to spread to other colony members. This product contains the active ingredient orthoboric acid 5%, which eliminates the field ants once it is ingested.

The mound itself should not be disturbed; otherwise, field ants will travel deeper into the nest or other parts of your yard, thus increasing the number of nests within your property.

Apply 1/2 to 1 oz. of Ficam Insect Bait around each ant mound.

This product may be applied with a handheld spreader or power duster or directly from the container. You can use a scale or container to measure the product for application. 

If you decide to use a tablespoon, measuring container, or other measuring tool, be sure not to reuse it for food repurposes.

This product may also be placed in removable bait stations in areas accessible to ants but inaccessible to children and pets.

Wait until field ants are no longer present within ant mounds before applying other pesticide materials. If this product becomes contaminated with another pesticide, it will not be effective.

Keep children and pets out of the treatment area until the application has been completed.

Step 2: Broadcast Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules Across the Lawn

Once the field ants are no longer present, apply a product like Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules over the lawn.

Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules is a bifenthrin-based granule insecticide labeled to eliminate a wide range of pests, including ants and other insects that the field ants depend on for honeydew, like mealybugs. Once applied, it will continue to fight insects for up to three months.

We recommend using a push spreader to broadcast Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules across your lawn to address any foraging or present field ants.

To treat field ants, you will use 2.3 to 4.6 lbs. of Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules per 1,000 sq. ft. or 100 to 200 lbs. of product per acre.

Determine how much Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules to use by measuring the square footage of the treatment area. To find the square footage, measure the lawn's length and width in feet then multiply them together (length X width = square footage). For acreage, take the square footage and divide it by one acre (square footage / 43,560 = acreage).

Load your spreader with the measured amount of Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules. Start by walking in a straight, parallel line from the corner of your treatment area in a back-and-forth motion until you have evenly covered the site.

Once you have applied the proper amount of Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules across your treatment area, you will water it with a liquid insecticide like Supreme IT.

Step 3: Treat Outdoor Areas with Supreme IT

Field ants are most active in grassy and other outdoor areas, so you will need to use a residual liquid insecticide to activate the previous application of Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules.

Supreme IT is a powerful suspended concentrate insecticide that can be used to control present and future infestations of field ants and other species of insects for up to 90 days. Both Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules and Supreme IT will help treat large areas such as lawns and the perimeter of your home against pests like field ants.

To get rid of field ants within your lawn and away from your home you will use 1.0 fl. oz. of Supreme IT per gallon of water per 1,000 sq. ft.

If field ants are present in ornamentals, then use 0.25 to 0.5 fl. oz. of product per 1 gallon o water per 1,000 sq. ft. or 10.8 or 21.7 fl. oz. of product per 100 gallons of water. 

With each application method, you will want to mix and apply it with a hose-end sprayer to treat large-scale areas. For smaller treatment areas, you can use a handheld pump sprayer. 

Once the solution is mixed, a broadcast application and perimeter treatment are performed. 

Perform a perimeter treatment by spraying 3 feet up and 6 to 10 feet from your home's foundation. While spraying, treat the underside of eaves and soffits around window and door frames, outdoor cracks and crevices, sidewalks, driveways, patios, and porches.

Firewood is not to be treated. 

Spray the top and bottom of plant leaves until wet, but not to the point of runoff. 

Keep people and pets away from treated areas until the spray has completely dried. 

Prevention

Once you have successfully eliminated the field ant infestation, you must take some preventative measures to ensure they do not return. To obtain complete control of field ants, you must modify your yard to make it less suitable for these ants. Continue with the following preventative steps against field ants.

• Field ants often come into open yards that are less disturbed by people. For this reason, maintain regular lawn care practices such as mowing your turf when it reaches 3 inches in height, raking fallen plant debris, and pruning overgrown tree and shrub branches.
• Seal cracks and crevices around your home's foundation, window, door frames, and other voids in your patio or porches with caulk or Solutions Sealator Pro Black Foam. Open voids often allow field ants to travel unintentionally into your home or in search of other insects. Look for thin cracks and openings in foundation, around window and door frames, and utility penetrations.
• Secure outdoor trash cans with tight-fitting lids to prevent field ants from crawling into them or creating nesting sites near this area.
• Store firewood and other wood materials off the ground and away from your home's foundation to avoid mounds nearby.
• Overturn bricks, stones, concrete slabs, and other objects in your yard to limit suitable nest sites for field ants.
• Treat your yard every 90 days with Supreme IT to eliminate field ants themselves as well as honeydew-producing insects like aphids and mealybugs that it depends on for food and the ant itself.

Key Takeaways

What are Field Ants?

• Field ants are the second largest compared to carpenter ants and are often encountered in residential yards.

How to Get Rid of Field Ants

• Mounds of field ants will be the first thing to remove when treating their populations. Once the mounds are controlled, you will proceed with long-lasting insecticide applications that treat large areas like your lawn with Valar Plus Bifenthrin Granules and Supreme IT.

Preventing Field Ant Reinfestations

• Keep field ants from reinfesting your yard with regular lawn maintenance such as mowing and reducing yard clutter by overturning objects. Additionally, it would help if you stored wood piles off the ground and secured food sources by applying Supreme IT every 90 days and placing tight-fitting lids on outdoor trashcans.