Fire Ants- What's your remedy? [Archive]

Ranger Mom

05-30-2005, 01:06 PM

Originally posted by 44INAROW
MOVE , no seriously, my husband puts the AMDRO bait on the mounds but the secret is to make sure your neighbor does it at the same time, otherwise, the ants just keep moving back and forth

AMDRO is what we always use too...my daddy swears by it!

Old Tiger

05-30-2005, 01:08 PM

Spit one time on the pile and put poison and it will be gone...

lepfan

05-30-2005, 01:09 PM

Originally posted by Tiger WR
Spit one time on the pile and put poison and it will be gone...

You been hanging out with YaYa?

Ranger Mom

05-30-2005, 01:11 PM

Originally posted by lepfan
You been hanging out with YaYa?

LOL!!:clap: :thumbsup:

Phantom Stang

05-30-2005, 01:14 PM

I'll throw in a me-too on Amdro. However, if you have more than a few dens, you may be better off hiring an exterminator.

Old Tiger

05-30-2005, 01:19 PM

Amdro works!

Txbroadcaster

05-30-2005, 01:46 PM

here is a good ole East Texas remedy..find a bunch of woodants, spiders and scorpions and put them on the fire ant pile..a HUGE battle will ensue..the fire ants will win, but if you do it 2 or 3 days in a row ( it willbe real fun to watch) and the fire ants move out..and if they do not move, at least it is fun to watch the battles LOL..nothing like seeing 3 or 4 scorpions try to take on a whole fire ant bed.

Old Dog

05-30-2005, 02:15 PM

AMDRO or something to cancel the reproductive ability usually works. BUT, you must continue a program. In my coastal field we hit them spring and fall. Hit the perimeter hard and you can hop scotch the middle. They will travel 15-20 feet to haul goodies to their queen.

crabman

05-30-2005, 02:35 PM

Amdro is the answer but it is all in how you put it out. It is a petroleum based product in the granules so you cannot let it get hot. Buy it at Wal-Mart and keep it in you air conditioned car until you get home. Bring it straight into your air condtioned house. Late in the evening when it is cool, take a small hand held fertilizer spreader and walk the perimeter of your yard and put out a very fine amount of the granules. This will be like a "fence". Inside the perimeter, walk around and sporadically distribute small amounts of the granules. Don't put it directly on a mound or even in the area. It is a bait. The ants will find it. 30 minutes later you can go out to a mound and see them taking the granules back into the mound. Three days later, no ants. It really works when you put it out this way. The heat is the killer.

Old Tiger

05-30-2005, 03:24 PM

Originally posted by lepfan
You been hanging out with YaYa? Yea right, I just spit on the piles by the practice field and they're always gone by the next day...

mustang04

05-30-2005, 03:30 PM

AMDRO is what we use...and it works VERY well, but for fun, ill kick the mound and stir up the ants, then spray gasoline on it and then light it, while its burning ill grap one of those cans of hairspray and hold it down and use it like a blow torch......reason why i know this is cool is cuz i did id about an hour ago while i was mowing in the backyard, but i didnt let my mom see cuz she would get pissed if she saw me using her hairspray like that haha

mustang04

05-30-2005, 03:31 PM

Originally posted by Tiger WR
Yea right, I just spit on the piles by the practice field and they're always gone by the next day...

and u kiss girls w/ the same mouth??????

Old Tiger

05-30-2005, 03:32 PM

LH Panther Mom

05-30-2005, 03:44 PM

Originally posted by mustang04
AMDRO is what we use...and it works VERY well, but for fun, ill kick the mound and stir up the ants, then spray gasoline on it and then light it, while its burning ill grap one of those cans of hairspray and hold it down and use it like a blow torch......reason why i know this is cool is cuz i did id about an hour ago while i was mowing in the backyard, but i didnt let my mom see cuz she would get pissed if she saw me using her hairspray like that haha

Man, I thought I was cruel! A couple of summers ago, hubby was "supposed" to treat our yard before he left for a business trip. Needless to say, he "forgot". :rolleyes: I sprinkled whatever we normally use on the mounds, not sure if Amdro or not but smells horrid. A couple of ants started chewing on my toes. :mad: So....I got the youngest son to find a stick. I poked the mounds & sprinkled more. It sure was fun to watch them curl up and die. :D

robbo93

05-30-2005, 03:49 PM

Take a 25lb bag of sugar and spread it in your neibors yard.:eek: :eek:

slpybear the bullfan

05-30-2005, 04:16 PM

Just MHO, but not only do you need to treat the mounds in your yard with AMDRO, or ORTHO spot treatments, you also need to do a total lawn broadcast with a 3 month product such as Bayer Total Lawn Insect Killer. This will turn your lawn into a bug free zone. It also does a good job of keeping bugs out of the house.

It does WONDERS. It also kills the HATED CHINCH BUG... (for those of you with St. Augustine lawns... GRRR!!!!)

44INAROW

05-30-2005, 05:02 PM

Originally posted by slpybear the bullfan

It does WONDERS. It also kills the HATED CHINCH BUG... (for those of you with St. Augustine lawns... GRRR!!!!)
Are Chinch Bugs the same as Chiggers? those bites will drive a person insane..........

lepfan

05-30-2005, 05:10 PM

Originally posted by slpybear the bullfan
HATED CHINCH BUG... (for those of you with St. Augustine lawns... GRRR!!!!)

Epsom salt does wonders on those chinch bugs!

mustang04

05-30-2005, 05:28 PM

Originally posted by 44INAROW
Are Chinch Bugs the same as Chiggers? those bites will drive a person insane..........

its not really the bite. its the fact that they are burrowing down through your skin to get to ur blood, one time i was walking around my great g-ma's house last summer after her funeral cuz we were going to check on the house, later that night chiggers were all over my ankles and crotch...i countes an avg. of about 30 on each foot below my ankles....SUCKED

slpybear the bullfan

05-30-2005, 05:30 PM

Chinch Bugs and Chiggers are two different critters... (although this lawn treatment kills both.)

Chiggers burrow into your skin and suck your blood.

Chinch bugs burrown into your St. Augustine and suck the juice out... leaving your lawn D-E-A-D.

44INAROW

05-30-2005, 05:46 PM

Originally posted by slpybear the bullfan
Chinch Bugs and Chiggers are two different critters... (although this lawn treatment kills both.)

Chiggers burrow into your skin and suck your blood.

Chinch bugs burrown into your St. Augustine and suck the juice out... leaving your lawn D-E-A-D.

I can truely say that the day was not wasted now.. I actually learned some valuable information :) considering my dearly departed daddy sold fertilizer before he was a school teacher, you'd think I'd know at least a little bit about grass :thinking:

bullfrog_alumni_02

05-30-2005, 06:51 PM

Originally posted by Txbroadcaster
here is a good ole East Texas remedy..find a bunch of woodants, spiders and scorpions and put them on the fire ant pile..a HUGE battle will ensue..the fire ants will win, but if you do it 2 or 3 days in a row ( it willbe real fun to watch) and the fire ants move out..and if they do not move, at least it is fun to watch the battles LOL..nothing like seeing 3 or 4 scorpions try to take on a whole fire ant bed. you got issues bro

VWG

05-30-2005, 07:13 PM

Dang..... I can't believe I had this many replies to a fire ant thread. Went with the AMDRO.... will see how it goes.
Thanks again for the info. from the downlow!

44INAROW

05-30-2005, 07:20 PM

Originally posted by VWG
Dang..... I can't believe I had this many replies to a fire ant thread. Went with the AMDRO.... will see how it goes.
Thanks again for the info. from the downlow!

"3ADOWNLOW - the only full-service football message board in Texas" :clap: :clap:

GreenMonster

05-30-2005, 08:31 PM

pee on em. Won't kill em (unless you been drinkin mezcal) but it will make you feel better knowing that they will be sleepin in your pee. :D

Diocletian

05-30-2005, 09:15 PM

Go to the bait shop......buy some dead crickets......throw them in neighbor's yard.....rofl

try 7-dust maybey?

also the exterminator is a tax write off I think....

Bull's-eye

05-30-2005, 09:56 PM

Originally posted by robbo93
Take a 25lb bag of sugar and spread it in your neibors yard.:eek: :eek:

Good one!! ...except my brother lives next door.

My wise old uncle told me that after you finish washing dishes, pour the used dishwashing soap and water on the ant mound. :thinking:

sinton66

05-30-2005, 09:59 PM

Originally posted by VWG
Need help on ridding my place of fire ants......

VWG, I don't know if anybody else responded with this, but Sevin makes a product called "Over and Out". It's a once a season fire ant killer that does a good job of ridding them for a whole year. You broadcast spread it just like fertilizer. Try it, you'll like it.

sinton66

05-30-2005, 10:03 PM

For those of you that don't know, you have to be careful with Amdro. I've heard of some cases where birds would eat it and get sick. I use Ortho Orthene or Sevin Over and Out. Orthene does a good job for spot treatments, and the birds won't eat it because it smells terrible(like rotten eggs).

GreenMonster

05-30-2005, 10:17 PM

On a more serious note than my first post on this thread, I just put down some of the new Ortho MAX yesterday (Sunday) and I did not see any ants today in my quick walk through. I hope this stuff works, claims to be a once a year application. I have my doubts about anything that claims to last a year when it comes to fire ants. Dang things don't die they just move to a new location. Tough little boogers. Anyway, it needs to be watered in and I chose yesterday for application because we had a very high chance for rain (which it did). I've tried several different products and have yet to have success. I even used diesel on mounds in my side yard. It killed some of the ants but mostly just the grass. The mounds just moved over to a new location. Diazanon will make a mound move but it will not put it away. One of my neighbors (SoluTakerIP's Dad) told me about a lawn service out of Wichita Falls that fertilizes and applies insect control to the lawn for about $40 bucks a whack. If my current approach fails then that is my next step. I need a lawn service anyway to handle my fertilization needs.

LH Panther Mom

05-30-2005, 10:22 PM

Originally posted by sinton66
For those of you that don't know, you have to be careful with Amdro. I've heard of some cases where birds would eat it and get sick. I use Ortho Orthene or Sevin Over and Out. Orthene does a good job for spot treatments, and the birds won't eat it because it smells terrible(like rotten eggs).

Yeah...that's the stuff we use - Orthene.

Diocletian

05-30-2005, 10:30 PM

nah nah nah, Have some fun with it...

order 4 of these off the internet and chain them to each side of your home, you'll never have to feed them and your dogs can get exercise chasing them rofl!!

http://www.tickleyourfancy.net/anteater.jpg

whtfbplaya

05-31-2005, 06:39 PM

Over and Out is good, but TIMIK is the best might be hard to get if you dont have a pesticide card.

sinfan75

06-01-2005, 04:47 AM

Use Tide laundry detergent. It doesn't kill em but they gone the next day. Plus it's cheaper than any of those other so-called fire ant killers. Wanna really kill a fire ant mound? Pour gas or diesel on it and light it. then you know they dead.:D

pirate44

06-01-2005, 07:20 AM

Originally posted by robbo93
Take a 25lb bag of sugar and spread it in your neibors yard.:eek: :eek:
ROFLMPWBO:D :clap:

robbo, dont you remember dad used to pour old motor oil on the ant beds. oops, maybe im not supposed to say that.

LH Panther Mom

06-08-2005, 11:43 AM

Folks, whatever you use, please do so with caution. If you have pets that go outside for any length of time, please do your darndest to keep them away from any treated areas.

I wasn't aware until yesterday afternoon that my husband treated the yard Monday with something (I don't have the courage to see what) and fire ant mounds with Orthene. For some reason, he decided to treat behind the hedges in front of our house; I don't believe he's done that before. That happens to be our kitty's favorite spot to "hide" when he first goes out to play. In all likelihood, the vet will have to put him to sleep in a couple of hours if there's no improvement in his condition. :( :(