Nanzi wrote:
We only started mulching with commercial mulches(Bagged) a couple of years ago. Since them we have been seeing more tiny ants in the house. And DH says they are outside, he saw a column of them climbing the foundation, which he despatched with insect killer.
Is the mulch attracting them? Does it need to be treated? Sprayed? Not used next to the foundation?? He used to use peatmoss to top dress the gardens. With the advent of the colored mulches, we started using the red/browns as our log sided home is a cinnamon color.
Thanks in advance for any and all help.

spraying an ant column is unlikely to do
much to kill the ant colony.

there are bait stations and bait gels that
will be ingested and taken back to the queen
to take care of the infestation in the house.
read and follow directions on package. after
that is done, find the cracks/gaps in the
house exterior and seal them up. you won't
need to poison anything else after that to
keep them out. especially if you do not
have easy water or food sources that they can
find if a random scout does get in.

to discourage ants in the wood chip mulch
put it down thickly over a weed barrier fabric
and fold the edges over each other and pin it
down so that there are no gaps for weeds or
ants to get through. there are species of
ants that will use bark or wood as a home, but
if the wood chips or bark are treated it's
pretty unlikely they'll find that a welcome
home until after they start breaking down and
become humus. when that happens they should
be refreshed (scrape off the top layer of
good chips until you get down to the bottom of
broken down material, scrape that up carefully
to not damage the weed barrier fabric, then
replace the good chips and add more to top it
off, around here we have to do this about every
five years).

if you live in termite country i recommend
not keeping any wood near the foundation of a
house and also hiring a professional to treat
the perimeter to keep them from finding it a
welcome feasting spot. do this _before_ putting
down a weed barrier or mulch around the house
foundation. -- NOTE:


songbird