Thatching Ants in Western Washington

[Bonnie in western WA]

I am new to Pierce County and have discovered many ant mounds on and around our 5-acre property and the entire community. The area is dense with primarily Douglas Fir trees. I have identified the ants as thatching ants (black body, red head, medium size...not a "small" ant but not as large as a carpenter ant). They do bite. I see trails going from trees to their mounds made of tree needles. I know there are a bazillion miles of underground trails and a kazallion number of above ground ants. Ants are beneficial, but I can't have them biting anyone walking around our property or lazing on lawn chairs. Do I co-exist with them, try to move their mounds, or...? I don't think an exterminator would work because wouldn't they simply rebuild their mounds and maybe rebuild closer to our house? I know chickens will eat them, but there are simply too many ants unless I had 20 or more chickens that continually ate them. Chickens are what they eat and I'm not sure I'd like that taste after I harvest one. Help.

 

[barred2rock]

The thing with ants is, if you remove or kill the queens (usually two per mound), the remaining worker ants will die off and can't be replaced without the queens. Some have success with pouring boiling water down the center of the mound, while the ants aren't disturbed. When the ants are calm & warm enough (first thing in the morning is a good time) the queens will be near the top of the mound. But once the mound cools at night or the ants are disturbed the queens will move further down.

Another thing to try is Diatomaceous earth (non toxic, unless breathed into the lungs), which works by destroying the exoskeleton of insects.