Mound ants
Editor’s note: This article is from the archives of the MSU Crop Advisory Team Alerts. Check the label of any pesticide referenced to ensure your use is included.
Species: Formica exsectoides Forel
Distribution: Nova Scotia to Georgia from the Atlantic Coast to the western side of the Appalachian Mountains.
Hosts: Soil dweller, attacks any plant or tree near the nest.
Damage: This ant attempts to kill any vegetation that may grow
on the mound or shade the area. The ants do this by biting the plant and
depositing formic acid into the wound. This readily kills small plants,
but trees may require numerous "stings" over the entire trunk before
death results. Attacked plants will be near mounds and the bark will be
covered with resin-filled blisters.
Description and life cycle: The Allegheny mound ant, as
its name implies, builds above ground nests in undisturbed, open areas.
The above ground portion, the mound, acts as a solar collector for
incubating ant eggs and larvae. This colonial insect has many queens to
lay eggs as opposed to other ants that may have only one. A 19-inch high
mound may contain 250,000 individuals. The ants feed on other insects
for protein and aphid honeydew for sugar. The ants may be
reddish-orange, black or both colors. Colonies are started by a single,
mated queen. New colonies take several years to develop enough to make
an above ground nest. Larger colonies may also subdivide, like
honeybees, resulting in many mounds being located in a given area.
Control hints: Large, numerous mounds are difficult to
control. This ant will move to a new spot if severely disturbed and new
colonies will become established from surrounding forests.
Option 1: Eliminate food. Since this ant relies on
other insects for food, control of aphids, scales and needle feeding
insects will reduce mound ant activity.
Option 2: Disturb mounds. Physical destruction of the
mounds will usually just irritate the ants, and they will reconstruct
the mound. However, continual disturbance, such as plowing two to three
times a year, will usually cause a colony to relocate elsewhere.
Option 3: Mound treatments. General chemical sprays to
the mounds are usually not effective. Dusts must be applied to the
mounds and around the parameter, at least one foot out so that the ants
will track through the insecticide. Colonies may burrow underground and
establish a new colony
More on mound ants
Allegany mound ants, Formica exsectoides, build large
conspicuous nests in open fields and in open areas in woodlots and
forests. Their large mounds are constructed of soil brought up from
excavated galleries below the nest. Large colonies may include over
250,000 workers and over a 1,000 egg laying queens. The mound acts as an
incubator for mound ant larvae and pupae. The ants kill nearby
vegetation including small trees and shrubs to keep shade off of the
mound. They do this by chewing a small hole in the bark and injecting
formic acid into the wound. Not surprisingly, they can be a real pest in
nurseries and Christmas tree plantations. They will aggressively defend
the mound by biting those who dare to disturbed it. This can make life
very unpleasant for those who happen to share their yards with Allegany
mound ants. Mature mounds may reach over 30 inches in height, six feet
across, and the subterranean galleries may go to a depth of six feet
beneath the ground.
Mound ants feed on most any type of small insect or arthropod they find
as they forage or hunt over the ground. The ants also collect the
honeydew secretions from sap-sucking insects such as aphids and
leafhoppers. They rarely enter homes or buildings in search of food,
which is a very good thing.
More on control options for mound ants
There are two approaches to controlling a colony of mound ants: you can
chose to drench or dust, or possibly a combination of both. Keep in mind
that because of the colony’s large size and determination of its
occupants, mound ants are very difficult to control. Dusting the top of
the mound and around the perimeter with an insecticidal dust like Sevin
Garden Dust can be effective if repeated enough times. The dust is
picked up by the ants and spread throughout the colony. The dust will
cake up and become ineffective if rained on, so dusting requires
multiple treatments over several weeks to have any effect on the mound.
Drenching a mound with a liquid insecticide, like liquid Sevin, requires
the top of the mound be scraped away with a shovel to expose the large
tunnels below it. To confine and concentrate the insecticide on the
mound, it’s best to shovel out a depression or bowl centered on the
mound. This will cause the insecticide to drain into the mound and not
run off. It is safe to assume that the ants will not ignore this
intrusion, so be prepared by having on long pants, which should be
tucked into socks or boot tops. A brush will be useful to remove ants
that crawl on to you during the operation. After opening a mound, pour
in about one gallon of the diluted material per foot of mound diameter
so that it soaks or drenches into the soil. Repeat the process at two
week intervals until no further activity is observed.
