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i have a type of ant that is nesting under my side walk in my back yard and i was wondering how i could control there numbers or remove them without destroying the colony the reason i ask is because at there current rate of growth all other ant species will be gone from my yard by the end of summer (worst case) but i have tried everything from nonstop raking of there hills to water to stabing there hills with a schovel to get them to move but they wont buge! how can i get them out with out killing there colony? i dont want to become a one species yard
What species are they fire ants?
Probably it's impossible, that's why the invasive ant species are so dangerous. I've read that natural fire ant parasites are used to reduce their numbers - they don't really kill many of them, but their presence forces them to be more cautious and the native species would be able to compete with them.
Typically, phorid flies parasitize only 1 percent to 3 percent of the native fire ants, and this alone has little impact on fire ant numbers. The flies’ effect on ant behavior is more important. Fire ant workers quickly recognize when phorid flies are present and either attempt to escape underground or assume a defensive posture. The presence of only three to four flies is sufficient to disrupt ant activity.
As a result, ants attacked by phorid flies spend less time searching for food. Other ant species, not attacked by the phorid flies, benefit by the greater food resource available to them. Thus, the decline in food collection and increased competition from native ants has a much greater negative impact on a fire ant colony than does death of a small percentage of worker ants actually parasitized. It is expected that red imported fire ants in the U.S. will respond similarly to introduced phorid flies as do the red imported ants in South America .
Read whole article here:
http://fireant.tamu.edu/materials/factsheets_pubs/pdf/fapfs009.2002rev.pdf
there not fire ants they look to be Tetramorium impurum but since you asked about fire ants that brings up another question i have fire ants at least i think i do can fire ants be passivists?