Fire ants are driving me crazy!

8 years ago

With all this rain, I can't control the fire ants with diatomaceous earth, because they aren't making mounds. It seems everywhere I stand now, I'm getting bit.

I hate using poison in my soil, but I'm mixing up my Demon today and spraying everywhere I can find ants crawling. Have to spray inside today too, since they love to come in through every crack and crevice when the rains start.

On a happier not, I saw my first mosquito hawk in the house last night. It's so sad that they don't live very long. He was dead in the bathroom sink by this morning. I laugh so hard when snowbirds and transplants talk about the "giant mosquitoes" in their houses, when they are most likely talking about mosquito hawks.

Featured Answer

dchall_san_antonio

8 years ago

Try this ancient and completely non poisonous approach on the fire ants (mounds or anyplace you see them coming from). I found this back in the 70s in an old Farmer's Almanac from the library. Mix 3 tablespoons of molasses or sugar in a gallon of water. Mix a teaspoon or packet of any yeast in a few tablespoons of warm water for 20 minutes. Pour the yeast into sugar water and then pour it all into the mound. If a gallon isn't enough make more. Pour it a foot or two around the mound to discourage them from moving.

Why might this work? Because fire ants hate sugar and all ants hate yeast. It has to do with what they are doing underground. The sugar and yeast ruin their food storage. They should abandon the mound in 24 hours, but look around to see if they just moved.

Having said all that, if they are not making mounds after it rains, then they might not be fire ants. Lots of ants will bite. Still, that sugar/yeast mix works on a lot of different ants.

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Comments (9)

Pea
8 years ago
Fire ants make mounds...really big mounds and in the rain they just make them taller tho if the mound gets washed out they will form floatillas with their bodies and float til they get to dry land. If they are walking around they likely are looking for a good place to rebuild or hunting for food. If you have a dry day sprinkle some grits around...they will eat the grits and then explode as the grit expands with moisture but the grits need to be reapplied after every rain.
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dirtygardener
Original Author
8 years ago
Amdro is actually ground corn infused with poison and grease. Fire ants love grease. If you mix grits into bacon grease and boric acid and spread it about two feet out around a mound, they'll eat it. Ants are foragers. So much ant bait is wasted by people who pour it onto the top of a mound. They'll only take a little of it, not enough to kill the mound. It's best to sprinkle it around a bit away from the mound, which I believe the instructions say to do (but nobody reads instructions).
writersblock (9b/10a)
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
they will eat the grits and then explode as the grit expands with moisture

Alas, this is a myth, like birds exploding from eating the rice left over after weddings. Even Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote about how the ants will accept the grits as a sacrificial offering, but it doesn't stop 'em from coming on in after what they want in the house.

ETA Amdro is the only thing that works on fire ants, IME.
Pea
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Grits have always worked for me for fire ants, i do not have a single fire ant mound in my yardanymore. Sprinkled around a mound and poof the mound will be gone in about a week.

fire ants have never entered my house but i have had crazy ants, ghost ants, white footed ants, broad headed ants, and some kind of black ant make pathways into the house. Terro bait has worked on all but the black ants as they are grease loving ants not sweet loving ants.
writersblock (9b/10a)
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
What kind of grits? That's a serious question. You're the only person I've ever heard of getting this to work.

BTW, you can buy the terro drops and add them to peanut butter for grease-eating ants. Just be sure pets can't get at it.
dirtygardener
Original Author
8 years ago
The big black ants are carpenter ants, and if you see them in your house, they're eating the wood inside your walls. Very hard to get rid of, because you have to find their nest, which many times, is under your foundation. The little black ants are the native fire ants. They aren't as bad as the imported fire ants, but you don't want to get bit by one if you can help it.
dirtygardener
Original Author
8 years ago
writersblock, I mix boric acid with karo syrup for the sugar ants. Never tried peanut butter, but it sounds good. I mix it with bacon grease for the grease-loving ants.
Pea
8 years ago
The black ants aren't carpenter ants, they are just black ants...they don't bite they just visit my sink to see if i left a butter knife in the sink. I'm not sure which ant they are but i know what a carpenter ant is. I found this nice chart for i.d.ing ants but i'm not sure which ants they are.

http://armstrongpest.com/Ants.htm