What To Do When You Find Ants Walking In A Line

Ants are fascinating creatures. How often have you found yourself marveling at a perfect line of them traveling along a patio paver, garden bed, or even a picnic table? Of course, in addition to wondering how and why they do this, you might also ponder if you should do anything about them. Should you be worried if they're marching along your favorite tree, for example? In most cases, this behavior, while remarkable, isn't cause for concern. If their line leads you to a poorly located nest, you may need to take action, like following the trail back to the nest and raking it. Most times, though, the ants are just following an invisible trail to a tasty snack.

Ant colonies have many scouts that go out and search for food. If they find something delicious, they head back to the colony, leaving a trail of pheromones behind them. This makes it easy for the colony's worker ants to follow the path to the treat. The line of ants you see is likely the members of the colony following the pheromone trail to find the reward and perhaps bring it back to their home. The ants also strengthen the pheromone trail as they march along.

If you're concerned about the line of ants, you can follow them and check out both where they came from and where they're headed. If the tasty food they're heading towards is actually a snack you left on a picnic table for yourself, you may want to move your food and also clean off their pheromone trail. Simply wiping the path they're following with a mixture of equal parts water and vinegar should erase the chemical scent.

You may also want to take note of where the ants are starting from. If they've made a nest in the middle of your lawn or in another inconvenient spot, simply raking their nest flat may convince the ants to relocate. 

One situation where you'll definitely want to take action is if the line is made up of fire ants. These aggressive and invasive pests can deliver painful stings and aren't something you want in your yard. You can treat for fire ants by using poisoned bait they'll bring back to the colony or by (carefully) pouring boiling hot water onto the mound.