Posted on 09/15/2004 7:31:58 AM PDT by An American in Turkiye
Anyone have a tried and true way of killing fire ants? I bought some white, nasty powder from Ortho and all it did was make the ants move their mound. After 5 attempts, I poured boiling water on them. Killed them all, along with a patch of my grass. Any suggestions would be welcomed.
Boiling water down the hole in the top of the mound. Kills the queen and the rest of the colony. May have to repeat regularly but at least it is nontoxic.
LoL.
Yes. There's a commercial fire ant killer, sold at Wally World, called "Over and Out". The stuff works - I haven't seen a fire ant or even a mound in 2 months now.
GRITS!
Worked for me while in South Carolina. No amount of chemical interference ever worked until I tried the grits. They take it below, eat it and it swells them up till they burst.
Good luck! Now I have to go and exterminate some carpenter ants!
Cheers!
Look on the bright side, you wouldn't have to mow that section of the yard for awhile.
Hire the entire ensemble of RIVERDANCE to do a 36 hour jig gig.
Amdro. Little yellow pellets that they take into the nest. Commercially available. Works in Florida, so should work anywhere.
They quit manufacturing it a couple of years ago because of federal environmental regulations, but they were allowed to sell remaining inventory. The EPA doesn't want the peasants to have insecticides that actually work. When I lived in Houston I bought a couple of extra bags of it to make sure I had a lifetime supply, then I moved.
Fire ants suck.
Take off and nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
gasoline works good.
amdro is good but has a short shelf life.
ortho max guard and their fire ant granules work good but careful it doesnt wash away too soon.
I think I heard lime works well too.
Hire an aardvark.
I use Spectracide myself. Put it on and around the mound and then water it gently in.
We used to soak the mound in gasoline and then set it on fire.
I'm not sure if the fire was necessary, but we were kids and it was fun.
Then you go ahead and use the Ortho Orthene killer yes the nasty white power and put a tablespoon on each mound after you are done mowing your yard
If you consistently do this week after week when you mow your grass you will eventually rid yourself of the "scourge of the south"
If you ever deviate from this procedure and stop doing it you can guarantee "They will be back!"
Good luck
We have major problems with fire ants here around Charlotte. One of the best ways of dealing with them that I've seen is to crush Alka-Seltzer into a semi-powder and spread it around the mound. The ants pick it up, bring it back to the nest and the ground water takes care of the rest. They seem to love the stuff. Just make sure the local birds don't get into it or you might be asking for trouble with the local fish and game folks.
I saw this on TV once:
Put a pile of steel ball bearings near the mound. Cover them with bird seed and put a sign near it that reads "Free Ant Food".
Buy a giant magnet from a company called "ACME" and attach it to a big bomb - which can also be mail ordered from ACME.
When the ants eat the ball bearings, they be attracted to the bomb, which will detonate and blow them all up.
"swells them up till they burst."
I've heard baking soda does that too.
I usually hit them with a hammer and squish them
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