Yes, ants often spread through sod. Sod can often carry ant colonies or queens in the soil, and this is one of the more common ways that fire ants move. This is why Texas and other states regulate the shipment of sod and nursery materials out of quarantined areas.
Sod comes with a layer of soil attached. That soil is where ants live. That means a pallet of sod cut from an infested field can carry all kinds of ants. Once that sod goes down on your lawn, so too do the ants.
Imported fire ants are the species that made this a regulatory issue. Federal and state quarantine rules cover the movement of sod, hay, nursery stock, and soil-moving equipment of infested regions. Certified growers treat and inspect material before they ship it out to avoid transferring ants from one place to another. That system exists only because things have gone wrong in the past with sod and nursery stock. They can, and have, spread fire ants faster than they could have spread on their own.
Around Houston, fire ants are already established. What sod does locally is sometimes introduce new colonies into a yard that had previously been cleared. It can even seed a new development with ants from a sod farm. Freshly laid sod also gets watered heavily for weeks. That’s good news for ants. They love consistently moist soil, so the watering certainly doesn’t help the people who bought the sod.
If you’re hoping to avoid this fate, buy from a reputable grower. Ask if the sod has been treated and certified. Then inspect pallets before installation for mounds and ant activity. After installation, watch for mounds within the first month. And if you do manage to get unlucky and still wind up with an ant infestation, you can always call a professional to broadcast bait across the yard so foragers can carry it back to the colony.
If new mounds keep appearing in your lawn, Mosquito Squad of Houston can help. Mosquito Squad treats fire ants and other ant colonies at the colony level. Recurring service will help you protect your lawn through Gulf Coast conditions.
