Fire Ants!

[HarveyH42]

I just finished mowing my yard, and found a lot of new mounds. Two of them are huge. All this in just one week, not a good way to start the summer.

Oh, guess I should explain about fire ants, they give a painful sting when disturbed. Usually it's not just a single sting, when one ant stings, they all start in. The pain is annoying for 15-20 minutes, but the stings itch for days as they heal.

The usual method of controlling them is poison, spray or granuals. Sometimes you kill the mound the first try, most of the time they just relocate a feet. I'm guessing this is mostly a southern problem, as we don't get a killing freeze during the winter.

Reason for this post: Anyone read anything about an electronic method of getting rid of these little pests? I don't really care if it kills them, or just makes my property unfriendly to them. Ultrasound is low range, so probably not suitable. Maybe a low current electical impulse, vibrations, or something.

 

[zevon8]

I have no idea about any electrical method of chasing them off, but they are unparalleled at cleaning your BBQ grill. Drop it on a mound to rile 'em up and you get thousands of workers that will strip it to like new condition. LOL.

 

[Hero999]

I've never heard of fire ants but here in the UK we have reda ants which sting, are they the same thing?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I've never heard of fire ants but here in the UK we have reda ants which sting, are they the same thing?

Only in that they are ants, we don't have any nasty animals or even insects in the UK really - other places do, and America has lots

 

[dknguyen]

Only in that they are ants, we don't have any nasty animals or even insects in the UK really - other places do, and America has lots

You are making the UK sound like a post-apocalyptic warzone.

 

[Styx]

Only in that they are ants, we don't have any nasty animals or even insects in the UK really - other places do, and America has lots

Oh I don't know BLair is a pretty nasty animal

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

You are making the UK sound like a post-apocalyptic warzone.

Anything we didn't like we killed off years ago

Blair escaped because we gave him to the USA to get rid of him

 

[HarveyH42]

All things have a purpose, just want the ants to do it elsewhere. I think they live mostly on what the neighbors cats leave in my yard. Perhaps I should work on getting rid of the food supply.
The UK must be a horriable place to live, nothing left alive to clean up after your neighbor's pets... I suppose you'd eventually get use to the smell.

But really, from what I understand it rains a lot over there. I grew up on the side of a moutain out west, it rained for weeks sometimes. We didn't have a huge bug problem either.

Fire ants are imports from South America (hitched a ride on a boat and some heavy construction equipment). Apparently there aren't no natural preditors that target these little critters. They try not to let the wildfires burn too much. And there hasn't been a winter freeze in a decade.

I'm guessing that there isn't much interest in controlling them, as they don't damage crops, and only a few people die each year from the stings. Alligators and sharks are much worse in that department. The chemical companies must be making huge profits on them (bastards probably planted them on that boat).

Thanks

 

[dknguyen]

Get fire pit bricks (the ones with an open bottom, not the concrete bucket kinds). THen move it around your yard and have bonfires over each ant mound for a while.

Or you could just dig up the ant nest and get the queen (maybe raise the colony in a fish tank if you are into that).

Or a cooler idea is to get an aardvark for a pet.

 

[Hero999]

Just pour boiling water on it, or better still boiling water mixed with ant killer.

 

[ClydeCrashKop]

Fire ant like well manicured lawns. Golf courses have a lot of them. My lawn is sparse with sand and crab grass. I don’t have any.

 

[Oznog]

Fire ants ain't a red ant. Fire ants form many invasive mounds, react very aggressively if you disturb the mound, and cause many red very painful, itchy bites. They often turn into small fluid-filled blisters. On some people it scars. Sometimes they will form mounds inside electrical boxes on the ground and short stuff out. They like manicured laws as well as wild ones. In my experience they're much more prevalent in ill-maintained lawns. Probably the shorter grass means less bugs & stuff to feed on.

There are no electronic control methods. Anybody suggesting they have one is full of it.
Any attempt to harass the mound with water, fire, digging, kicking, etc will only make them spread into new mounds.

I'm in Texas. Amdro granules is completely effective, though it takes several days. It is a bait poison. Do not molest the mound itself, just add a sprinkle anywhere near the mound, fire ants are very effective at finding all food within a large radius. It will always kill the mound and the queen within 3-7 days or so. It is slow by design since this will allow them time to bring it into the mound and feed to the queen before they start dying.

You can use a broadcast spreader and just distribute granules across the entire yard, but it will take much more Amdro. Best thing is to bait all the mounds you find, then do it again a few weeks later. Best time is right after a heavy rain because they move their mounds above ground when the normal tunnels get flooded. All live mounds are very obvious. Also it's much more effective if you get your neighbors on all sides to do it at the same time and eradicate them from the area. It may take months before you see any fire ants again without any further treatment.

 

[dknguyen]

What happens if you just dig in and kill the queen? Won't that stop the nest?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The UK must be a horriable place to live, nothing left alive to clean up after your neighbor's pets... I suppose you'd eventually get use to the smell.

Plenty of insects and small preditors, but nothing really harmful to humans, wasps are probably the most dangerous creature we have?.

We do have ONE poisonous snake, but I've lived in the countryside all my life and never seen a snake at all?.

Ireland by the way has NO snakes at all, legend says that St Patrick chased them all out.

 

[HarveyH42]

What about spiders?

Anyway, the fire ant problem is a year round hassle. There has to be a less interactive solution. Chemicals are expensive when used regularly. During the rainy season, they are less effective, sometimes a total waste of money. The intent of this thread was to see if somebody has thought up an electrical solution. I don't know if anybody could slip a product past the chemical companies, but on the hobby level something might be done.

I'm going to keep researching fire ant, maybe I see something useful. The bit about fire ants being attracted to electrical equipment (traffic light controller, transformers, air conditioners) leads me to believe they can be lured into a trap. Maybe heat or high voltage will kill them. Being an outdoor project, and torrential rains, guessing high voltages probably not the best option. Maybe there is some kind of plastic they can't climb on, fall into a container and drown.

I'm sure there is a solution, mankind has been so succesful as a species, because destroy everything we don't like (even other people). Just a matter of time and thought. This isn't a commercial venture, think it would be a marketing nightmare. If it works reasonably well, then there would be some profits, but the competition would fight it. The Chineese would take it apart, make it smaller and cheaper. The chemical companies would absolutely hate it. Ever home owner spends atleast $60-$100 each year, an electronic device would be a buy once, years of use. And finally, the ultrasonic pest control scam...

 

[philba]

there may well be an electronic control but, as with all colonizing insects, you need to kill the queen and all workers that could turn an egg into a new queen. chemical means are effective at this. an electronic repellant would simply cause them to move, if it worked at all.

 

[HarveyH42]

Getting them to move over to the neighbor's yard is fine, not to fond of them anyway. If the ants don't like it here, less likely they'll stick around. Killing workers would starve the colony. If I could reduce the worker population, the colony wouldn't grow much. I really don't expect a miracle device that will remove the problem 100%, but I do think the problem can be greatly reduced.

I'm wondering if this year's major invasion has anything to do with my dog dying last year. He had a weird habit of urinating on mounds. I just thought it amusing, not just in my yard, anywhere. Figured it was just the bare mound of dirt that attracted him. Yeah, he was a big dog, hosed them down good. Could also be that no dog means the neighbors cats crap in my yard more...

Mostly, I'm finding chemical solutions (many options), but only one electical solution. Don't think I'd buy one, but kind of what I was thinking. It's called 'Solar Ant Charmer' $89.95 (free shipping). Shaped kind of like your basic solar yard light. Lid on top flips up to expose the solar cell. The ants slide down a funnel and drown in soapy water. It doesn't go into detail on what attracts the ants. Since early I found these ants like electrical equipment, must be a simple 60 Hz sinewave generator, probably a piezo speaker for output. Perhaps anything, as it looked like the unit was pushed into the mound. My main concern is that it only does one mound at a time, ants that don't fall in a drown will continue to crawl on the unit, which of course I don't see messing with (getting stung sucks for several days).

Guess I can start with a simple piezo-oscillator around 60 HZ and see how pissed the ants get. Might get something built today, but gotta do some other stuff before it rains.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Obviously you would need to be CAREFUL! - but how about pouring petrol down the hole and setting it on fire? - works on wasp nests!.

 

[dknguyen]

Obviously you would need to be CAREFUL! - but how about pouring petrol down the hole and setting it on fire? - works on wasp nests!.

Trade an ant hill for a dead patch?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Trade an ant hill for a dead patch?

A dead patch doesn't bite!