Spring is here!! it's ant killin' time, how do you do it

[old head]

well, I  have ant mounds popping  up all over the yard the last couple of weeks.

I have used all kinds of stuff, but these days I just use boiling hot water from a kettle.  It rarely takes more than one dosing to get rid of that mound.

I used to use powders and liquid sprays, but hot water seems to work just as well.

Old Head

[Kent in Upstate NY]

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/molten-aluminum-makes-casts-ant-nest/

[Kent in Upstate NY]

[old as dirt 2]

red ants are the worst to get rid of. water would just move them around and they will rebuild a mound.

you need to contain and kill the mound.

once when I lived in south carolina I had some extra muritic acid for the pool. I said to myself what the heck I'll try it and poured some on to a mound. It work excellent and killed them all real quick. downside was grass never came back in that spot for the next 3 years. oh well no ants though.

[Triple Jim]

I used to use various poisons on the big nests.  Then I found out that ants tend to kill ticks.  Last year I left a big nest at the edge of the woods next to my driveway alone, and while it was active I didn't see any ticks within 100 feet or so.  But then you might be talking about Fire Ants, which I may not leave alone as readily.

[rocker59]

I only address them, if inside the house.

Not really into killing anything en masse unless they're really causing problems.

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[oldbike54]

 Old Head , are we talking Fire Ants here ?

 Dusty

[charlie b]

Waiting until Cam finds this thread :)

[Penderic]

Maybe lease one of those anteaters?


Strange looking critter. 

[redrider90]

I use one of 2 methods (and this includes fire ants) a gallon or two of boiling hot water with a funnel.
The other one I use which is far more potent and less trouble than carrying around boiling water  is a 50% solution of rubbing alcohol + water. Also uses it on yellow jackets and wasp nests.  On a yellow jacket nest I do it at night when they are all tucked away and I make sure I put my funnel right into the top of the hole and pour it slow enough so it runs down into the nest.
Rubbing alcohol is dirt cheap by the gallon at farm supply stores. No need for poison. Rubbing alcohol kills all them nasty critters almost on contact.
With a wasp next I take a pint jar and just throw it and run. (in case I miss a couple). 

[Triple Jim]

Thanks for that, Harvey.  That sounds a lot better than using half a can of "wasp and hornet killer".

[Luap McKeever]

Terro is the best stuff I've ever used.  I only use it in the house if I see an ant.  Outside, I don't even bother.  My chickens love them, and so do the other birds. 

Terro is great though. It's a sweet syrup like poison that the ants come and eat, then take it back to the colony and feed it to the rest.  You can wipe out an entire nest overnight.  I suppose you could use it outside too.

[bigbikerrick]

Here in Arizona we get some pretty nasty red ants especially during the rainy season, I have had best results with a powder called "green light" just sprinkle on the  hole, I cover it with a piece of tile or something so my dog wont lick it, and its a done deal. I have put the garden hose down some and let the water run, they must be some extensive tunnels underground!
Rick.

[old head]

Old Head , are we talking Fire Ants here ?

 Dusty

I don't see fire ants in my yard, mostly the black ones.  If I dont' address them when the mound pops up, then it gets out of hand really quick.

wasps, I use dawn dish soap and water.   In a cup mix and little dawn in water, get it sudsy and throw it on the nest after dark, or daytime if you have a place to run.  most will be dead within 30 seconds .

Old Head

[twowings]

+1 for Terro

[Rough Edge racing]

I only address them, if inside the house.

Not really into killing anything en masse unless they're really causing problems.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

Yes...   We live in the woods but no fire ants just the assorted sizes of blank ants...We just kill the ones that get inside.....But living in an all wood house we keep a watch for them asshole carpenter ants...

[Guzzistajohn]

Only one thing to do


gif upload 20mb

[troyhamilton]

here we have a mole infestation. everynight they tunnel the front yard! makes the yard soft. ive tred packing the yard with my jeep. no luck. it dont stop them. as far as fire ants, we have them back home. they invaded so fast. we used some spray called Bengal. worked for about a month and they would come back. out side we used this white powder, forget the name. I think it was outlawed. then we used diazon.

[Muzz]

. out side we used this white powder, forget the name. I think it was outlawed. then we used diazon.

Could be Carbaryl. If it is, it is also great on wasp nests. At night when they are tucked up in bed puff it around the opening. The nest will be wiped out in a day.

I still have some in a puffer pack. A precious commodity now.

[charlie b]

Here in Arizona we get some pretty nasty red ants especially during the rainy season, I have had best results with a powder called "green light" just sprinkle on the  hole, I cover it with a piece of tile or something so my dog wont lick it, and its a done deal. I have put the garden hose down some and let the water run, they must be some extensive tunnels underground!
Rick.

This tickled me.  I grew up in Phoenix (Glendale specifically) and our house was about a block from the farmland (63rd ave and Glendale, which as some of you know is in the middle of town now).  We had snakes, mice and ants.

I still remember my dad using Green Light on ant nests in the yard.  His dad used it as far back as my dad can remember.  Granddad moved to Glendale in 1927.  That stuff did work well.  I haven't looked for it in decades.  I just figured it had been regulated out of existence.

[troyhamilton]

yeah it could be. been a long time since i left. theres fire ants within 15 miles of our house in johnson county ar.

[Turin]

I figure live and let live until you come into my house, except balck widow spiders. they get carb cleaner with a lighter.

[organfixsing]

In Queensland, Australia the hornets/wasps are generally of two types. 1. A mud wasp and 2. A paper wasp. T mud wasps abandon their nes once it is fully stocked with eggs and comatose grubs. The paper wasps build nests of various sapes out of a paper like material. The easiest way to get rid of them is to light a rolled up (not tightly) piece if newspaper. Any wasps that are flying around get their wings burnt off and the nest is set alight, killing the contents.
What a kind person I am!
Cheers
Brin 

[bigbikerrick]

This tickled me.  I grew up in Phoenix (Glendale specifically) and our house was about a block from the farmland (63rd ave and Glendale, which as some of you know is in the middle of town now).  We had snakes, mice and ants.

I still remember my dad using Green Light on ant nests in the yard.  His dad used it as far back as my dad can remember.  Granddad moved to Glendale in 1927.  That stuff did work well.  I haven't looked for it in decades.  I just figured it had been regulated out of existence.

     Thats cool, I never knew Green Light had such extensive history!  It does work a treat for scorpions too, if sprinkled around doorways, and on the gravel, ground cover in my desert landscaped yard  .                                           
Rick.

[lucian]

here we have a mole infestation. everynight they tunnel the front yard! makes the yard soft. ive tred packing the yard with my jeep. no luck. it dont stop them. as far as fire ants, we have them back home. they invaded so fast. we used some spray called Bengal. worked for about a month and they would come back. out side we used this white powder, forget the name. I think it was outlawed. then we used diazon.

 Ants can be tough to eradicate, they tend to just move over a bit when disturbed, Moles on the other hand are easy, Just roll up some small balls of Wriggly's spearmint gum, bb size or slightly larger and place them in or near their tunnels. They can't ingest them and choke. Or get a good cat. 

[waxi]

Everything is fine until mosquito season starts... :Beating_A_Dead_Hors e_by_liviu

[PeteS]

I use lawn grub killer. One time I spread it on the whole lawn and found dead birds around house. I don't do that anymore more but a cup full on an ants nest takes care of them in a few hours.

Pete

[Bill Hagan]

Waiting until Cam finds this thread :)

Yeah, I need to tell him about it.   


We have ant mounds on several parts of our place.  These are home to Allegheny mound ants.  See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_mound_ant





We named these two "Dolly" and "Parton."





Kathi has a serious aversion to these -- not those two specifically!  -- and goes after all of them with a vengeance.





We have tried all sorts of measures to get rid of 'em, with the most successful being this:

https://www.amazon.com/24oz-Ultradust-2x-Fireant-Kill/dp/B000ZONYQ8

OK ... gotta get back to retired life after a snowstorm.






Bill

[Edited to remove those maddening #$%^&* �.]

[jas67]

What is this "Spring" that you talk about?
2017-Mar-14

[Cam Lay]

Told y'all I was still here... :-)

I'm a big fan of baits for ants, period. They have fewer effects on non-target species, you put very little active ingredient out into the environment compared to a broadcast treatment, and most of the active ingredients are relatively benign, as pesticides go. (Remember, we regularly deal with gasoline, and think nothing of it, despite it being toxic, flammable, carcinogenic, etc.) Please do not use gasoline or other petroleum solvents on ant hills, by the way. In my business (environmental regulation, specifically agriculture and very specifically pesticides) we call that a "groundwater injection system." I see a lot of groundwater data; trust me, there's enough questionable crap in there already...

I'm not a big fan of carrying boiling water around in the yard, either. Dueling scars are cool, Bill tells me. I'm not so sure about scalds...

The dirty little secret of ant mounds is that most of them are temporary structures and will move if they are disturbed. Old Head is in Louisiana, so I am assuming that "we" are dealing with either the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invictaor the native black fire ant Solenopsis xyloni. (Now we all have a bit of scientific trivia to throw about at the next get-together in the South. If it's red, swarms up your pant leg, and stings like a &#^$%, you can look down and say "Yup. Solenopsis invicta, the red imported fire ant. Species name means "invincible." Painful little b*tches." If it's black, swarms up your pant leg, etc. it's the native one. They don't hurt quite as bad. The workers are all female, by the way. You're welcome.) All fire ants are very sensitive to disturbance. I once prosecuted a guy in SC who had some sort of PVC and copper-wire contraption that he hammered down into fire ant mounds. He claimed it upset their karma or interfered with their magnetic chi or feng shui or something. It was a lot less amusing at $200 a pop, especially when you could hammer a broomstick into a mound and have it relocate by the next day...

There are currently 10-12 different active ingredients registered as baits for fire ant (and other ant) control. I've had real good luck with Amdro, which is cheap, readily available, effective, and doesn't contaminate groundwater. Unconsumed product binds pretty well to soil, and then breaks down. It usually gives you a few months of control before the neighboring fire ants re-colonize. The biggest issue with it is that it spoils rapidly, even unopened. Buy it and use it - don't keep it around. There are other choices, of course. Right now I think there are ten or twelve of them.

The atomic bomb of ant control is fipronil, closely followed by imidacloprid. They're both neonicotinoids, very toxic to insects at very low doses (parts per billion in the case of fipronil), especially toxic to social insects like ants (and bees, unfortunately) because they have significant neurological effects even at sublethal levels of exposure. They break down the foraging and grooming behaviors that social insects depend on the keep everybody alive. If you're from the city, think "crack for bugs." If you're from the country, think "meth for bugs." All of the neonics and some of the other active ingredients are available as sprays, too, but in that formulation they have a much worse exposure- and environmental-toxicity profile.

Baits are effective because the ants find them and carry them downstairs to feed to the children. Adult ants can't chew - they subsist on a liquid diet. So they carry stuff into the mound and feed it to the larvae, who chew it up and spit out liquid for the adults. (and you thought seagulls feeding their young was icky...) Once the larvae are all dead, everybody starves. It's slow. Don't expect results the next day. But if you put out bait and you see them picking it up (fresh bait, warm day, apply it in the morning so they have all day to clean up), they're goners.

One last note - ants are very finicky about what they eat. Some like sweets, some like fats, some like only things that are alive and kicking. If you try something and don't get control, get the ants identified (your local Extension Service usually will do this for free, or for a small fee). Once you know what they are, you'll know what they eat, and can put out the appropriate stuff.

Good luck, and if this hasn't covered it please feel free to email me. 

Thanks,
C