# Fire Ants!!!!!!



## Walt B (Jul 14, 2009)

Sorry to hear about your split , but, on the other hand, I should thank you about the grease tip. I used it as a trial on hummingbird feeders that were plagued by ants and IT WORKED! :thumbsup:

Now then...when we lived in the city and had garden tours, I used Amdro to get rid of the fire ants. I don't know how it would be around bees, but it sure worked to get rid of the ants. I have heard it's not one of the most environmentally friendly treatments, but the container is in the shed and it's dark...don't know if it says anything about other insects.

Also, _Texas Gardner _had an article one time that said human urin would do the trick. So, if you're really upset and decided well "p*** on it", then...

Walt


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## Panhandle Scott (Jul 11, 2009)

Derek....do you know where the fire ant mound is. If so if you want to keep the organic approach is to build a somewhat small but hot fire near the mound and place a large container of water over it and heat to either a boil or as close as possiblle and pour the hot water over the mound. 

If you have a gas fish fryer even better...just drag the propane bottle out with the cooker and place water in the kettle used to fry fish with and heat up to boiling.

Stirring up the mound will also help in exposing as many ants as possible. Do this once and then re-boil more water but take a shovel and dig up as much as possible of the mound and repour. 

Yes...it is a little labor intensive but it is completely chemical free.

Walt B mentioned Amdro, it works but I have noticed that sometimes the ants will move the mound a few feet if they notice alot of their brothers keeling over. They will also build up a resistance/defense to it. I have seen them take the Amdro granules and move them out and away from the mound. I then had to switch to another bait in order to kill them by chemical methods.


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

Walt B said:


> Sorry to hear about your split , but, on the other hand, I should thank you about the grease tip. I used it as a trial on hummingbird feeders that were plagued by ants and IT WORKED! :thumbsup:
> 
> Walt


Glad I could help!

I found 3 mounds and as a matter of fact I did pee on 2 of the 3. Ran out...



Panhandle Scott said:


> Walt B mentioned Amdro, it works but I have noticed that sometimes the ants will move the mound a few feet if they notice alot of their brothers keeling over. They will also build up a resistance/defense to it. I have seen them take the Amdro granules and move them out and away from the mound. I then had to switch to another bait in order to kill them by chemical methods.


Thanks for the help Pan. I think I will do a orange oil drench on the mounds I see and spread out some granual ant posion. 

Funny thing is. On of my strongest hives is right next to this one with an ant mound right in front of it. Ants don't bother a good strong hive.


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## Flyman (Jun 11, 2007)

Derek,

Wife uses orange oil as a drench for the mounds. All it seems to do it give them a bath and make them smell good. I then sneak out an put Orthene on the mound. End of problem. I also use Orthene Fire Ant Killer around the "ground contact points" of the hive stands as a barrier. Never have seen a problem with the bees. No sugar carrier in Orthene and the bees do not forage on it. Seen very few Fire Ants get in the hives (strong hives), however sugar ants are plentiful. I just ignore those. Around here, a fire ant infestation of 100 mounds per acre is fairly common unless you use some kind of control.


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## Skinner Apiaries (Sep 1, 2009)

We use amdro broadcast. Kills ok. Diazanon is awesome. Banned some places, maybe the nation. If you want to go FULL organic, in a book I read about raising bees in africa, the ants are really bad, so they made hive stands where all the posts of a table like hive stand arrangement were in tin large cans (like cafaterias go through) with used motor oil in the bottoms of them. the ants couldnt even scout. I went so far as to start to try this, but then my the commercial fella I worked for just gave me a little bit of diazanon... Sadly I havent had any fireants in my yard this year. They do wonders for a wax moth infestation. Just kick a good mound over and set infested boxes on top with no BB. guaranteed to kill, and probably tote off most of your unwelcome guests. And you thought fireants were just a pain!


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

Flyman said:


> Wife uses orange oil as a drench for the mounds. All it seems to do it give them a bath and make them smell good. I then sneak out an put Orthene on the mound.


I'm thinking a free big ole jug of wine and I won't tell her about it next time I am over. 



Skinner Apiaries said:


> We use amdro broadcast. Kills ok. Diazanon is awesome. Banned some places, maybe the nation.


Thanks, I think the Diazanon is banned. I am going to use the Orthene. If for some reason I still see ants after that. I will move the hives and the pasture will accidentally catch fire.


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## Skinner Apiaries (Sep 1, 2009)

lol. I did alot involving ants and fire as a kid. Dont set any houses or forests on fire!


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## summer1052 (Oct 21, 2007)

Derek, my friend, I am so sorry this happened! I could have told you this would happen -- I have seen the ants walk up tall blades of grass to get to a hive. The <deleted> children of unmarried parents! :doh:

Don't bother with grease or tanglefoot. Some ants will die, and their mates will walk on their backs to get to the hive. 

I have hive stand with legs made of 4" X 4" posts. I set these in plastic plant trays -- the kind that catch drips form potted plants. I sprinkle granulated fire ant poison in the trays. The bees ignore the granules, and the ants die. If they get wet, they still work.

I have been experimenting with sprinkling Borax around to kill fire ants. It seems to repel them, but not kill them. (It will kill ****roaches if mixed with a little onion juice.)

Fire ants are not like other ants, and they are evil. I aim for organic as often as possible, but I make 2 exceptions: Fire ants and bind weed.

GL, and know you are not alone in this particular war.

Summer


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## Lil Grain of Rice (Jul 30, 2009)

Derek said:


> I'm thinking a free big ole jug of wine and I won't tell her about it next time I am over.


Is this to do with the urine method?


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## Hambone (Mar 17, 2008)

Lil Grain of Rice said:


> Is this to do with the urine method?


Kinda gos hand in hand.


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## allan38 (Feb 25, 2009)

Use Antifuego if you want organic.

http://www.malcolmbeck.com/products/anti-fuego.htm


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## Josh Carmack (Dec 19, 2008)

We have hybrid RIFA starting to move in on us now. regular RIFA can't take our winters. They are starting to breed with our red and black carpenter ants. That makes an ant twice as big as normal RIFA and about 4 times as aggressive as out carpenters. Our sweet and carpenter ants will not sting unless forced to. My experience with RIFA has been they will sting you when foraging for no reason! My wife grew up 30 minutes from where the RIFA originated in Mobile. The hybrid we are starting to see is aggressive enough to attack in large numbers if you disturb the mound, but they typically ignore you while foraging.

Amdro has knocked out the three mounds we saw this year. I may have over dose because I didn't read the directions, but they took the pellets like candy. A week later, no ants.


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

If you have found the mound I see a couple choices.

1.) phorid flies http://fireant.tamu.edu/news/phorids_northTexas.cfm

2.) Maybe some Napalm. A little (10 parts) diesel and (1 Part) gas mixture down the hole with an ignition source and that should cook most of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napalm

3.) If you are really creative a little HCl + H2O → H3O+ + Cl− down the hole. Wear a gas mask.

4.) Chocolate covered Fire Ants and make some money at the same time.


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## summer1052 (Oct 21, 2007)

Napalm is a serious possibility. I have asked DH about it before. He keeps saying "overkill". I keep saying "kill". :waiting:

The problem with killing "the mound" is, that on 22 acres, I have HUNDREDS of them. And they are hard to kill. They tend to move laterally and come up nearby, if you don't get every last ant, and the queen. Besides, even if I somehow managed to get all of mine, my neighbors aren't killing theirs, and they'll move in. :doh:

Best you can do is defense around the hives and knock down the grass they can crawl up.

On the plus side, a frame of SHB or wax moth larvae placed on a mound will be cleaned up in no time by these children of unmarried parents.

I wonder what Chuck does about fire ants . . . 

Sum


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