Fire Ant invasion

[fossis]

Just pour a thing of dry, uncooked grits onto the mound(s)... then the worker ants will eat them and take them back to the queen. Once they eat them and get a bit of water in their little bodies, the grits swell and kill 'em. Grit's are cheap... no southern family should be without 'em! ;-)

Bran <><

Thanks for the info, I'll try that.
I heard 'dawn dishwashing soap', would do the trick, it would instantly kill 'local ants', but took longer on the 'fire ants', (tougher I guess). :P

Fossis...............

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Family Maps of Hinds County, Mississippi, Deluxe Edition - Grab it through Amazon!

[stefen]

Just pour a thing of dry, uncooked grits onto the mound(s)... then the worker ants will eat them and take them back to the queen. Once they eat them and get a bit of water in their little bodies, the grits swell and kill 'em. Grit's are cheap... no southern family should be without 'em! ;-)

Bran <><

Heard of that trick many times but never used it...gotta give it a try...

A while back we used some diesel fuel on one mound and gasoline on another...both worked wonders...(works on snake dens also)

 

[mastereagle22]

Started to say Kerosine or Gasoline would work but stefen beat me to it.

I generally don't like to kill living things but these ants kill anything and everything they can!

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I thought only Florida had them. They are nasty. We even have them in the swamp. They will float on each other until reaching dry land...any small piece of dry land will do. They push out native ants. No natural enemies here.
The only real solution may be to import a native wasp that lays eggs in these ants and the larvae feed on their host. Biologists are working on that now. You may be able to google it.

Until then, pour ant pellets in and around mound. Survivors will build another mound somewhere else. (like in your neighbors yard).

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

This may be the link. No time to read it.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12617153.000-science-fire-ants-deceived-by-killer-wasps-.html

 

[fossis]

Just pour a thing of dry, uncooked grits onto the mound(s)... then the worker ants will eat them and take them back to the queen. Once they eat them and get a bit of water in their little bodies, the grits swell and kill 'em. Grit's are cheap... no southern family should be without 'em! ;-)

Bran <><

Heard of that trick many times but never used it...gotta give it a try...

A while back we used some diesel fuel on one mound and gasoline on another...both worked wonders...(works on snake dens also)

Gas gets them for sure, but the ones down in the tunnels, move & start another colony.

Fossis.............

 

[fossis]

Started to say Kerosine or Gasoline would work but stefen beat me to it.

I generally don't like to kill living things but these ants kill anything and everything they can!

If we don't 'all' fight them, they will literally take over.
I have heard in Texas, that you can't pick up a square bale of hay, without being covered in ants.

Fossis..............

 

[fossis]

I thought only Florida had them. They are nasty. We even have them in the swamp. They will float on each other until reaching dry land...any small piece of dry land will do. They push out native ants. No natural enemies here.
The only real solution may be to import a native wasp that lays eggs in these ants and the larvae feed on their host. Biologists are working on that now. You may be able to google it.

Until then, pour ant pellets in and around mound. Survivors will build another mound somewhere else. (like in your neighbors yard).

They have been on the move (northward) from LA & TX, to our area for several years.
They have introduced the 'flies' or wasps in this area also, but no results as yet.
My son recently bought a 50 acre farm, & ants are all over it.

Fossis...............

 

[stefen]

As a footnote, the two colonies we attempted to eradicate were totally gone within hours...must have caught them at the right time (whatever that is)...

Now if I can get rid of the squirrels and woodpeckers, I'd be happy...The woodpeckers have holed my mountain home around all walls maybe a foot or so below the eves...I cover the hole with primed tin and they move over a few inches and make another hole...eventually I'll have a 4 inch high tin band around the whole house...

 

[fossis]

As a footnote, the two colonies we attempted to eradicate were totally gone within hours...must have caught them at the right time (whatever that is)...

Now if I can get rid of the squirrels and woodpeckers, I'd be happy...The woodpeckers have holed my mountain home around all walls maybe a foot or so below the eves...I cover the hole with primed tin and they move over a few inches and make another hole...eventually I'll have a 4 inch high tin band around the whole house...

I know what you mean about the 'woodpeckers', I have a friend who stalked one with a 'shotgun' every morning, (never got him).

Fossis..............

 

[stefen]

If you gave a woodpecker some of those little blue pills would he lose his wood?

 

[macadamia_man]

Grits DO NOT WORK on fire ants.

The species simply DOES NOT EAT SOLIDS.

Not the ants, the queen or the larvae.

So there is no way the grits will swell and kill. If you have seen them draggig solids like seeds around it's because they take them back to the nest to 'suck' dry of oils and water.

Messing with the nest, brood or queen simply means they take off for a few metres away using their extensive underground tunnel network - which can extend 20 yards or more away from the visible nest mound.

GAS and KERO will poison the soil they contact directly for decades (check out the EPA advice), and then leach their way into you and your neighbours' water supply, killing plants, fish, birds and eventually you too.

Use a combo IGR bait or indoxacarb according to the Texas Two Step method, and do get your neighbours to join in otherwise your time, money and effort are being way less efficiently used. And if you live in an area rated "fire ant free' make sure you observe plant quarantine regs when you buy or ship plants and high-risk materials and nag your councillors or reps to pull their fingers out. Fire ants are beatable, but not having them in the first place is infinitely preferable.


http://fireant.tamu.edu/

 

[fossis]

If you gave a woodpecker some of those little blue pills would he lose his wood?

How much wood , could a woodpecker peck, if a woodpecker could peck wood?

Fossis...............

 

[stoney56]

Now if I can get rid of the squirrels and woodpeckers, I'd be happy...The woodpeckers have holed my mountain home around all walls maybe a foot or so below the eves...I cover the hole with primed tin and they move over a few inches and make another hole...eventually I'll have a 4 inch high tin band around the whole house...

Down here, we call that aluminum siding. LOL

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Grits DO NOT WORK on fire ants.

The species simply DOES NOT EAT SOLIDS.

Not the ants, the queen or the larvae.

So there is no way the grits will swell and kill. If you have seen them draggig solids like seeds around it's because they take them back to the nest to 'suck' dry of oils and water.

Messing with the nest, brood or queen simply means they take off for a few metres away using their extensive underground tunnel network - which can extend 20 yards or more away from the visible nest mound.

GAS and KERO will poison the soil they contact directly for decades (check out the EPA advice), and then leach their way into you and your neighbours' water supply, killing plants, fish, birds and eventually you too.

Use a combo IGR bait or indoxacarb according to the Texas Two Step method, and do get your neighbours to join in otherwise your time, money and effort are being way less efficiently used. And if you live in an area rated "fire ant free' make sure you observe plant quarantine regs when you buy or ship plants and high-risk materials and nag your councillors or reps to pull their fingers out. Fire ants are beatable, but not having them in the first place is infinitely preferable.


http://fireant.tamu.edu/

Good advice. I was wondering why you could kill the mound only to have them appear somewhere else nearby.

 

[Arizona Bob]

I use a poison called Amdro. Sprinkle it close to the nest. Ants eat it and carry it back to the nest. More ants eat it. Ants die. More ants eat dead ants. All ants die!

Good stuff. You can get it at most hardware stores (like ACE, etc.).

And no, I don't work for Ace.

 

[jeff of pa]

Used to find large Mounds of the big Red Ants up here when I was a kid.
We'd take a Stick & Mess with their nests.

Havn't even seen a Red ant for Years.
don't know if they went Extict or just
Fruther into the woods then I Travel these days.

Now all I see are what we call Pissie Ants (Tiny) outside.
& Large Carpenter Ants inside in the Summer.

 

[rmptr]

Thanks for the heads up!

This thread seemed to start down south, but the one info source was from LA county here in CA.

Them critters are scary! It would be tough to harvest crops if being attacked !

I'd be tempted to torch 'em if I ever saw 'em, but I like that Amdro method better. Kill em all !

Here's a bit of relief from those little monsters... Detecting at beach yesterday. Not much luck. A couple coins just dropped and rusty nails from burned pallets. NO ANTS !

 

[fossis]

I use a poison called Amdro. Sprinkle it close to the nest. Ants eat it and carry it back to the nest. More ants eat it. Ants die. More ants eat dead ants. All ants die!

Good stuff. You can get it at most hardware stores (like ACE, etc.).

And no, I don't work for Ace.

Good info

Fossis.............

 

[fossis]

Used to find large Mounds of the big Red Ants up here when I was a kid.
We'd take a Stick & Mess with their nests.

Havn't even seen a Red ant for Years.
don't know if they went Extict or just
Fruther into the woods then I Travel these days.

Now all I see are what we call Pissie Ants (Tiny) outside.
& Large Carpenter Ants inside in the Summer.

Now that you mention it Jeff, I haven't seen many of the 'big red ones' either, & the 'big black ones' are not too plentiful.

Fossis..............