{"id":523561,"date":"2026-03-07T00:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T00:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523561\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T00:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T00:27:11","slug":"ongoing-dry-conditions-cause-ant-infestations-across-south-australias-riverland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523561\/","title":{"rendered":"Ongoing dry conditions cause ant infestations across South Australia’s Riverland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laura Walding and her partner had to run for cover when thousands of ants began swarming their backyard.<\/p>\n

Ms Walding lives in Barmera in South Australia’s Riverland and is one of many who have recently dealt with ant infestations.<\/p>\n

“It was really quite the experience being chased by a bunch of big meat ants and bull ants,” she said.<\/p>\n

Loading…”Our backyard was completely covered. We could sit on the back verandah and actually watch the ants from a distance.”<\/p>\n

The process to get rid of ants can be challenging, as Ms Walding found out about a month ago.<\/p>\n

“Because it’s a rental, we actually had to go through our land agent, who told us other people were having the same issue,” she said.<\/p>\n

“When you stomped on the ground, you could set them off and they’d just all be swarming all over you.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Many Riverland residents say they are seeing ants everywhere. (ABC Riverland: Jackson Byrne)<\/p>\n

Located about 200 kilometres north-east of Adelaide, the region experienced a brief reprieve from dry conditions at the beginning of March, with nearby farmers recording 117 millimetres of rain within 24 hours<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But with the return of the heat and the dry, the ants have also returned to the couple’s backyard.<\/p>\n

While Ms Walding said numbers were currently not as bad as they had been before the deluge, experts said it was only a matter of time before they returned to “invasive” levels.<\/p>\n

\"Smiling<\/p>\n

Ben Hoffmann says ants are always around, whether you can see them or not. (Supplied: Ben Hoffmann)<\/p>\n

Favourable conditions bring out ants<\/p>\n

Invasion ecologist and ant specialist Ben Hoffmann said an increase in the appearance of ants did not necessarily mean they were not there in the first place.<\/p>\n

Dr Hoffmann said a combination of factors led to ant infestations.<\/p>\n

He said periods of prolonged dry weather caused desperation in ants, prompting them to look for anything moist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When humid conditions followed the dry period, ants sensed the moisture and became active.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Hoffmann said only rain kept them hiding.<\/p>\n

Australia’s native ants, the hardest workers in your garden<\/a><\/p>\n

10 of the hardest, cleverest workers in your garden.<\/p>\n

“When there’s humidity in the air, the ants become more active, but they don’t just suddenly appear,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s really only when they’re in great abundance, or they’re moving around, that most people would even notice them.”<\/p>\n

But there is no question there has been an increase in call-outs to deal with the pest, according to Tania Klix, who owns and operates Murray Pest Control Riverland.<\/p>\n

“It’s been so dry that it’s forced them to go looking for moisture,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Like anything, ants need moisture to survive, so that’s what’s encouraging them to forage around your home.<\/p>\n

“They just need that slight gap to get in and they’ll go searching for what they want.”<\/p>\n

Benefits of having ants<\/p>\n

While Dr Hoffmann acknowledged it could be unpleasant to have ants hanging around your home, he said it did bring some benefits.<\/p>\n

“If you have ants in your backyard and in your house, then you actually have a healthy place to live in,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Now that said, they can be quite annoying. Many ants will actually bite and you don’t want that.”<\/p>\n

\"Small<\/p>\n

Ben Hoffmann says ants are a crucial part of the ecosystem and often keep termites away. (Supplied: Jan Sobotnik\/University of Sydney)<\/p>\n

Dr Hoffmann said ants could also be keeping other pests at bay.<\/p>\n

“Ants and termites don’t get along. Termites are just ant food, so they’re probably doing you a service by controlling termites in your backyard and around your house,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It all depends on your perspective.”<\/p>\n

How to get rid of them<\/p>\n

There are plenty of home remedies for getting rid of ants, but the experts say it comes down to the basics.<\/p>\n

“There is no real solution, just general tidiness, not having food scraps lying around the place and having a clean kitchen,” Dr Hoffmann said.<\/p>\n

“If something is overwhelming, there’s not much to do but call a pest controller.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Experts say ants can keep other more invasive pests from causing damage. (ABC Riverland: Jackson Byrne)<\/p>\n

That is exactly what many have resorted to doing.<\/p>\n

Ms Klix said she was mostly being called out to problems with smaller house ants, which often meant dealing with nests with “4,000 to 7,000 ants”.<\/p>\n

“We use a product that you can spray along their trails because they don’t know they’re walking through that,” she said.<\/p>\n

“That chemical passes through the colony because just killing the ones with the surface spray around the outside of the home doesn’t really impact them.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Getting rid of ants can be a difficult process. (ABC Riverland: Shannon Pearce)<\/p>\n

“Fingers crossed, we’ll get some more rain and that will keep them at bay for a little bit longer again.”<\/p>\n

But with little to no rain forecast, the Riverland region could be in for another long dry period and round two against the ants.<\/p>\n

“We need the ants, but we don’t need them attacking us,” Ms Walding said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laura Walding and her partner had to run for cover when thousands of ants began swarming their backyard.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[260771,64,63,260772,260767,260769,260770,260768,44,260765,260766,260763,260764],"class_list":["post-523561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-ants-south-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-hoffmann","tag-benefits-of-ants","tag-did-rainfall-affect-ants","tag-how-to-get-rid-of-ants","tag-how-to-kill-ants","tag-news","tag-should-i-kill-the-ants","tag-what-causes-ant-infestations","tag-why-are-there-ants-in-my-house","tag-why-are-there-so-many-ants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}