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How to Control Leaf Cutter Ants A mature colony can contain 2 million ants and can produce thousands of queens who fly away on moonless spring nights to mate and form a new colony. The young queen inserts a small piece of fungus she brought from the old colony stored in her mouth into the soil and lays her eggs in it. She fertilizes the new fungus garden with fecal material until the new workers hatch. Then, she'll eat up to 90 percent of the first brood to keep the size of the colony from getting bigger than the food supply. The young workers will be small, but they begin cutting leaves and feeding the fungus garden as soon as they are able, and the colony and ant size begin to grow rapidly. I've seen established nests as big as an acre. They can move tons of earth over the years and harvest thousands of pounds of leaves. Crater shaped mounds mark the colonies of leaf cutter ants and their connecting caverns can reach 20 feet into the ground. Foraging trails can extend out 600 feet from the nest openings. The ants can strip an entire small tree in one night. They are especially destructive to evergreens during the winter. The yaupon holly and the pine tree are two of their favorite targets in cool weather. Control of the leafcutter ant is difficult because they won't eat pesticides put on a leaf and their colonies are so extensive, it's tough to find the main mound to apply chemical control. I've found bait that is very effective on new colonies and about 70 % effective on old established ones. Several applications may be needed for a complete kill. Contact me at gardener@biglump.com if you would like more information about this method of cut ant control. Although leaf cutter ants make it challenging to garden in this part of Texas, it's important to keep in mind that they keep the soil aerated and fertile and are very beneficial to the ecosystem. They work the soil and keep it loose for the wild post oaks that need well-aerated soil. (I suppose some of us might think it's a little too aerated when a large nest collapses and swallows a cow or a tractor.) They keep natural meadows open in the middle of a thicket that give deer and large birds a safe place to congregate. They build their nests in a series of terraces that can help prevent erosion on slopes. They also compete with the fire ants for space. Don't confuse leafcutter ants with Red Harvester Ants. Harvester ants make a single mound that looks like a volcano and harvest seeds and grasses from a circular area 6 feet around their mound. They feed on the grass and dead insects they collect by foraging. They usually aren't a problem for gardeners and are a valuable food source for the Texas Horned Lizard or Horny Toad.
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The Texas Leafcutter Ant has several names including the Town Ant, The Parasol Ant, Cut Ant, Fungus Ant and a myriad of other names that can't be printed in a family newspaper. Working at night during the summer and the day in the winter, they can make quick work of the most beautiful garden. This time of the year they seem to be everywhere, cutting leaves into tiny pieces to carry back to their underground nests. They feed the freshly cut plant material to a fungus they grow for food. This fungus is their only known source of nutrition. They meticulously clean the fungus to keep it free from pests and molds. When the ants bring back a leaf that is toxic to the fungus, the fungus secretes a chemical that tells the ant not to bring it any more of that type of leaf. 
