Astroturf and fire ants in Central Texas?
by
Bbunny42
+2
I am wanting to recycle some artificial grass to my backyard to eliminate low, muddy spots. I'm concerned about fire ants building a home under the grass. Has anyone in fire ant country tried this? I have lots of trees and use the blower to blow the leaves out into the middle of the yard for mulching. Pea gravel would blow right along with the leaves. Not sure how the larger river rock would do. Maybe I should just lay more pavers to eliminate the mud and let the rain water drain through. I can't build up the area because I already have an outdoor paver patio and a smaller patio under my swing and these would be flooded, particularly the swing one. Hometalkers?
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One tiny idea. If you could find a way to shred the AstroTurf, it would fill the low places, but not provide a shelter for fire ants. Even long strips, folded, would help, but smaller pieces would settle in better. 😇
If you are afraid of ants and fire ants, just put out some cornmeal if you see any ants. It kills them and kills the colony. They cannot digest it. It is safe, inexpensive, and not harmful to pets or kids. Best of all, it woks!
I don't know about the Astroturf, but I do know fire ants. No one likes to get stung by them. Use the cornmeal or food grade Diatomaceous Earth to kill the mounds. I wish I knew about them when I lived in Texas in the eighties.
The turf may not dry out completely and smell. I'd make a dry river bed. Hope the this helps.
Garden Project -- How to Create a Dry Creek from BHG.com
Thanks, Hometalkers. I do use cornmeal for fire ants sometimes, but the area I need to cover is quite large and it would be hard to detect the mounds under the turf until they had spread everywhere. I think I'll have to discard this idea and think again about extending the patio with pavers or using large river rock to fill in the low area -- something to withstand blowing leaves across it. Thanks for your great ideas.