Horrible red ants

Nasty.

Once I get them I would let you know. I am not sure how my friend is going to bring them to me. But we could learn from her.

I don't know if mantises eat ants. I thought since they were mean-looking, and they were armed, may be they could do something. :-)

Gardenwife... please tell me you figured out how to get rid of these. I had been noticing these as I was moving some large rocks around rebordering a bed. What I've done is just moved the rocks and they seemed to dig down in the dirt and take there pupas?? with them. I never tried to kill them so I don't know if I disturbed there nests, but I know I have really done a number today. There was a huge plastic potting pot out back by my tree with pretty sad scrawny plant growing in it. Maybe a 30 gallon pot. I'm cleaning out the area so I decided to dump the pot and the dirt in it. BAD IDEA! I've never seen that many red ants, there were THOUSANDS of them in there. I still have the heebie jeebies! I'm not letting my three year old or my dog out of the house for a while for fear of them getting bit. My son things bugs are the best thing ever. What should I do?

Also I don't know if this has any thing to do with anything, but when I dumped that pot there was the most foul odor, almost like a really strong cleaner smell or something, could it be the ants?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm going to be itching for a week over this I know it.

Jen

To tell you the truth, I've not done anything because they keep moving their nests; they definitely do move their nests if distrubed, and I'm sure walking the dogs, watering plants, and such has disturbed them. I am not sure where they're headquartered at this point. Right after our company from Alabama left to go home, I got an ear infection and have not been doing much of anything out in the yard for the last two weeks.

I just notice that they're still around, but not in the same places as I saw them before. Blah.

I'm not sure about the smell, but I know they will get in through the drain holes of pots and make nests in them. The smell could be root rot -- were the roots black down at the bottom?

I moved a cornerstone in my garden the other day & had a big nest under it.
I hit'em with a few squirts of Pyrethrum (organic) & they're history.

These guys totally dismembered my Zuke earlier this year, stripped it down to nothing but the stems & leaf veins.
I envisioned the old Disney nature shorts, the one with the ants each carrying a piece of leaf & little army helmets LOL

I'm currently awaiting their counter-offensive =)

Well thanks for the reply guys. That was nasty! The roots were not rotten, i think it was definitely the ants smelling like that as I have smelled that before when happening upon one of their hideouts. DH says he has something he can spray for them when he gets home, have no idea what it is but I'm really worried about them. They are probably going to be all over my yard now. I've never seen anything like that.. there were so many I couldn't even begin to guess how many there were but I'm sure you can imagine a 30 gallon container full of them basically.

Anyways... I'll see what DH has or maybe try the grits thing. I've got to do something about it I don't want my son getting into one of their new hang outs and getting bit as he just loves any kind of bug, *sigh*

Jen

If I had 30 gallons of red ants, I wouldn't rely on grits, jen!!!

There is a bottle of stuff called Zap I think, not sure on the name, I'll have to go find my bottle, anyway, you just put down a couple drops of the stuff, the worker ants come around and start sucking it up, and then they take it back to the nest and share it with everyone, including the queen, and in about 2 weeks, no ants whatsoever!! It's the best stuff I've ever found, we had the HUGE black ants, the tiny, tiny sugar ants, the black and red ants, and the all red ants at one time or another and this stuff took care of all of them! I think you can get it at Home Depot and Lowe's.
Raven

I read on Ohio State's website that some species of ants, odorous house ants, emit an unpleasant odor which, to some, smells like rotten coconuts.

Zap sounds like some sort of ant bait product -- That's what I'm considering. The bottle of liquid Sevin I have is pretty old, and I don't know that it would still be good.

GW, I sometimes see a trail of ants marching toward a flower pot or something sitting flat on the patio and when I lift it up the ants have already set up housekeeping there. I just go put the tea kettle on, wait for the water to boil and pour it all over them. I keep pouring it all along the line to where they are coming out of the ground and really soak that area , That seems to get rid of them,(for that bunch anyway).

For as many as you have though, that would take a lot of kettles wouldn't it....LOL

ginlyn- That supposedly 'stresses' the nest and makes them form new nests and make more babies.

It could be an urban legend so don't ask me. I put grits on mine! LOL (they are well fed)

My Grampy Kittredge used to pour a cup of kerosene into nests he wanted to make go away. Worked on ground yellow-jackets and carpenter ants. If they were still there the next day they got a cup of gasoline and a match. I'm sure that's not eco-friendly, but it worked. Frank

The extension office fact sheets do indicate that some ants do split up and form multiple colonies if their nests are distrubed.

Now, we should all consider ourselves fortunate we don't have these ant problems:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040812/ap_on_sc/australia_ant_colony_1

A 60-mile supercolony?!

Oh Geez! Yes thank goodness we don't Gardenwife! Well, DH sprayed the site with something he already had in the garage, some type of ant killer. It killed a lot of them, but I'm sure many escaped as he didn't get home for a couple of hours after I dumped that pot. I'm hoping that was the big nest and if I find any others, I'm just going to dump boiling water on them or try the grits method.

I appreciate everyone's input!

Jen

We have a lot of them in FL & GA, and control them with bait that comes from hardware store, Walmart, etc.

It's dry crumbs in a bag, and you just sprinkle some around their bed, or wherever they are. They take it into the bed and it kills them, some kind of poison.

It's been around for many years, and it does help, usually gets rid of the bed.

It may come up somewhere else, but everybody uses it, so someone else will take care of it. Keeps them under control anyway, or they would take over!

Found a great resource list of alternative ant repellants and killers. All natural, whatever that means. ; )

http://www.ourwaterourworld.org/Finding_alternatives/Product_list/Bug/Product_list.html

I've used Terro brand liquid bait in the past. It works for a moderate infestation....don't know about 30 gal..

We have a barn/shed outbuilding, and I let our mobile home renter keep his dry dog food in it. WRONG!

They were the black 'sugar ants' but they were quite numerous. I used a couple of bottles and finally got them gone. It took a couple weeks before they started to dwindle and several more before I felt they were done for...must have been more than one colony with several queens. Mom used Terro for years and said that was what she'd get. Had to get it at True Value Hardware....Wal-mart didn't sell it at the time....don't know if they do yet....hopefully, I won't have to find out.

That's good to know, too. Honestly, our focus has been elsewhere lately since they seem to have moved to places we don't see them very much. They're off the patio area, at least!

The bait is a clear liquid and might be attractive to the pups...doubt that the kitties would mess with it. Be sure to put it along a used 'run' and cover it somehow so that the girls won't investigate.

I poured it on little squares of cardboard and then it was easier to handle...and you could move it if the spot wasn't just right. Looked like Light Karo Syrup. It wasn't expensive...about 3 bucks for a bottle.

The ants would crowd around the glop and suck up the liquid...then take it back to the masses.

It's worth a shot...cheap.