Big-Headed Ant Infestation

Signs of a Big-Headed Ant Infestation

Usually the first thing people notice is the ants themselves: steady lines of small brown workers along baseboards, patios and the edges of driveways. The second clue is loose soil. Big-headed ants nest underground and push the dirt they dig out to the surface, leaving little mounds or streaks of fine soil along cracks in concrete, between pavers, at the base of walls and around tree trunks and pipes. They also build thin tunnels of soil across hard surfaces so they can travel under cover.

In a well-kept lawn the colonies can be hard to spot, except where grass meets a sidewalk or driveway and soil keeps showing up in the seam. Those edges act as highways, and the ants follow them into new territory. Colonies have many queens and link together into large networks that crowd out other ants. Because one network often stretches across several yards, a problem on one lot is usually part of a bigger population next door.