Fire ants

Fire ants are worse here than they have been in years. Has anyone else noticed this? I have had more bites from them being in places I would never think they were. Had a black garbage bag with compost laying in the driveway and after it rained they had their nest under it. Do you think there are so many because of the drought summer before last? I really hate using poison but nothing else has ever seemed to work as they just come up somewhere else. I won't treat the whole yard just the mounds as they come up as I won't poison all the critters I have.

Try dry grits and give them a couple of days. DE works on some types of red ants but not all, same with citrus oil. I don't use any pesticides but those ants test my resolve!

I forgot about dry grits Thanks!

We have problems with them at the ranch. I got to carrying a jug of amdro and hit every mound I saw. They just popped up elsewhere. Did the grits thing and that worked for the past year. I just noticed new mounds after the rain we got. Time to do it again!

By the way...since the ground got a good soaking we now have "sink holes" from caved in tunnels that I assume are from ants or doe burrowing animals. Almost flipped the tractor on one that sunk in while driving down a dirt path!

Wow glad you didn't flip the tractor and get hurt. Yeah I have an armadillo that digs in my yard but it is cheaper than buying spiked track shoes for aerating the yard :) and he is cute :)

I use orange oil on the fire ants, and then I can work in the area almost immediately. I have read that fire ants are preyed upon by other ants, so killing all ants isn't the best solution.

I don't think anything preys on fire ants. Even my Guineas won't get near them. I'm wondering if I would upset nature too much by importing an anteater from Central America.
:)

What do the grits do?

I just read that worm castings will keep fire ants away. That's a good reason to use them.

Marty I believe they eat them then the grits swell and kill them....I may be wrong. Wow Worm castings.

I am sorry to say that I have finally had to resort to using Spectracide on the mounds that come up in the areas where we have to dig or work on those plants close to the nest. It works instantly and it kills them dead, I have tried a lot of remedies but they don't do the job. I only use it on the mounds that interfere with plants and with our work.
I think most every one knows I believe in organic gardening, but I tell you, those ants don't care, they just keep on coming and biting.
Boiling water works, but I can't boil water when I am away from home, or put boiling water on a mound near a plant, that would kill the plant.
The same with vinegar and orange oil, that would kill the plants too.
In any event, that is my story.

We have great luck with Orthene. We carry some on the golf cart and the four wheeler, I also keep some at the gate when I am working dogs. It works well, doesn't require anything but sprinkling on a mound, the animals don't bother it, and I get to take my frustration out by disrupting the mound before I sprinkle. Since they carry it to the queen by it sticking to them, not eating it, the madder they get, the more gets into the mound.
Not a big fan of organo phosphates since I am very sensitive, but I can use this one and it works for us in the pastures. I will have to try the grits for comparison. How much do you use?

There is supposed to be a fly that fire ants are so afraid of they stay in the mound and hide and starve to death, last I heard its going to be imported here... havent heard when.

About the fly what kills it? They imported lady bugs to PA years ago and now nothing eats them. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hse-fact/1030.html Sometimes I think we should not do somethings. I use a powder (looks like baby powder) extinguish as it works great. I went to a seminar and the guy said the mounds have tunnels in every directions so when a nest gets stirred up automatically those tunnels and the ants in them take off to make another hill. They are always on alert to move it anything stirs in the hill. He said we should treat the whole yard but I can't do that as there is too many critters I enjoy talking to and chuckling at their little antics.

that was my question when I heard, but I dont know more than that fly is its predator, and with our climates warming northward, there is a possibility we would have gotten these new bugs in our areas anyway. I haven't heard anymore about it, and it may be here already anyway

I have not had orange oil bother plants, yet. I have poured right on their roots. In one case in a pot that a big banana was growing in.

Depends on plants. I boiled a hive under my lettuce and the lettuce never even wilted...guess the water went down too fast.

I don't put the orange oil in boiling water. Just tap water.

I'm with you, Josephine, I'm organic *except* when it comes to fire ants.

Carla

Thank you Carla, I have tried so many things but nothing works as fast and complete, I use the poison as little as possible.

I'm always afraid of importing a species to prey on another species. When the prey is gone then what do they eat? Most of the time we don't know the whole story on the imported species. I think the tried that in Hawaii only to find out one species was nocturnal and the other diurnal. Playing mother nature is like playing with fire.

If everybody used pesticide in the manner Frostweed does the problem would be solved, with very few side effects. I only use it when I see no other solution and I dont use household products either. I don't see how they can be any safer.

My David is very allergic to be and wasp stings and since he moved here he has been using wasp and hornet spray. I am teaching him less is more. If you spray don't spray from far away as you kill alot more than the wasp as the residue or what else it hits (lizards or frogs, beneficial bugs) I sometimes use orthene systemic granulkars on my cannas for leaf rollers only when really bad. I just sprinkle very little around the base and it works for months sometime longer as they don't stay around to multiply.

I have had to use brush and poison ivy killer in my neighbors yard by the gallons this year. His yard is full of poison ivy and I caught a case so bad last fall I have scars. I suffered for 4 weeks with it and nothing relieved it. The neighbor lets it grown all over and over the fence, under the fence, and has alot of junk in his yard it grows in. I finally ask him if I would buy the chemicals would he allow me to spray it. Finally he agreed. My dr said each time I get it it will be worse. Sometimes neighbors are not a good thing. I did get a steroid shot but unless you get it within the first few blisters you notice you suffer through the whole course of the rash. I did buy Zanfel off ebay as It was recommended by a military man on here. He said they give it out to our service men and women. I got it 25 dollars for 2 1 ounce tubes and at walmart it is 35 dollars for 1 1ounce tube WOW I am prepared now.

Plain distilled vinegar will kill poison ivy. It's much cheaper than herbicides and doesn't kill the beneficial micro-organisms (and earthworms) in the soil. You can plant in that soil 2-3 days after using it. It just makes the soil acidic for a few days.
TAMA has imported Phorid flies, the natural predator for fire ants in Venezuela (where we got the infestation from). They lay eggs in the fire ants and, of course, the ants die when the eggs hatch. I know they did an experiment at the Atwater Chicken Prairie but the folks there said it didn't work well enough. The flies also started laying eggs on bees!
I've had hits and misses, both, with citrus oil.
The grits work well but it's not immediate. The ants take the grits down to their "kitchen" and when eaten, the grits swell and kill the ants.
I'm still thinking about finding an anteater!!

Ditto! I've had armies of ants coming into my yard from the private air strip this year. I've gone through 5 cans of Raid Ant and Roach spray just spraying them as they migrate into my yard. There are dead bodies all over the place. And they just keep coming. There must be one helluva huge ant mound in the air strip!

My feet/ankles/legs are so bit up from bites I look like I've been through a war. Problem is, I have neuropathy in my feet so I can't feel them biting me, but boy do I feel them itching and burning within 24 hours!

Husband has been using a product called Cyonara* in the yard for both ants and fleas (which seem to be horrendous this year, too). Our two dogs (both Bichons) have been chewing themselves to pieces. And, of course, the fleas love me, too. So between the ants and the fleas, my whole body is scabbed or scarred from bites.

Cinnamon sprinkled around will make them move, but it doesn't kill them (the ants). But if they're on the move, they just find another path to take to get to where they want to go. Besides, it gets expensive to continue sprinkling it, since it kind of washes away when it rains.

*Very expensive and, unfortunately, kills everything. So he only uses it when the fleas start getting bad again. We're no longer feeding the birds, and that also helps to discourage the squirrels from coming into the yard (they're no longer trying to find seeds that the birds have dropped). All wild animals transport fleas from one yard to the next.

The armies of these creatures is not limited to only your areas. I am near El Paso, and I have never seen as many fire ants as there are this year. I have also tried the Cinnamon and true they just move but it seem like they move even closer to the house. Started today with the Raid at 4.50 a can I hope it takes care of them fast and for good.

I use beneficial nematodes once a year to once every 2 years. They eat flea larva, lawn grubs, and fire ants, basically all ground dwelling insects. They do not appear to bother earthworms. They will live if the ground stays watered and pesticides and herbicides are not used.
I will target with Amdro antblock in critical areas (under pondliner under the beehive stands) because my bees really really are antfood, and that pondliner keeps the ground underneath dry, thus creating a perfect ant habitat. If you are not organic and do not grow food near the house perimeter you might try it, and yes, less is more, kills all ant species.

But everywhere else, I use a shovel, or cinnamon. If you shovel one fire ant mound on top of another fire ant mound, war erupts and many casualties occur. Cinnamon is a natural deterrent, it interferes with their sense of direction, so I use it around the house.

What I use was extinguish and can't remember the other but it is fine like baby powder and the mound is gone by the next day. Yes this is an extremely bad year and as soon as it rains they appear elsewhere but I kill them 1 mound at a time.

Where do I get nematodes and what is the name they are sold under?

You can only buy nematodes in the spring/fall, here anyway, I get mine at Russell Feed. They are sold under Anti-dote. I bought mine in march/april, trying to get the ground wet enough to apply them has been a challenge. I need good moisture for good deep penetration then ordinary watering of garden/ grassy areas keeps them going.

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