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Not far. And not safe. You might as well bury a long-burning firecracker in the ground with the fuse coming out of the dirt and lighting in. Fire in the hole!
The mounds are dead spots in the lawn anyway... Just need make sure it doesn't get bigger... I've got firecrackers (about half a case left), but they are small, the kind that mostly make noise, light the whole 20 pack at once. They individually have fast fuses, not even powerful enough to blow up a small orange off the tree. Would have tried them already, but not enough fuse time.
I just finished breadboarding a square wave generator, 64 Hz (close enough), works fine with a piezo-tweeter. I had a nice, bare element but couldn't find it. Thought I'd mount it on one end of a stake, circuit and battery on the top end, and just shove it into the mound. I did find some small solar cells (old yard lights...), so might replace the battery. Don't think they put out much current though.
Yeah, this won't kill them, probably won't chase them far, it's just to see how they react, how pissed off they get, and if they stay aggitated while the oscilator operates (guess I ought to put in an on/off switch so I can wait until they calm down after installation.
Does this forum allow video uploads? Just short clips? My digital camera does short AVI, never really messed with it.
It would, at best, only make them move. This does nothing to solve the problem and I doubt the ants would actually react in any significant way to electrical, magnetic, or sonic waves of any realistic amplitude.
OK, if you made a microwave oven that opened up and cooked the area, MAYBE. It'd be incredibly dangerous, you'd get fire ants all over it and you, and I'm not sure it would even work. I hear cockroaches survive a microwave oven disturbingly well. Anyways I hear simply rigging a microwave to run with the door open won't work, the chamber must be closed to be a resonating cavity.
They're not attracted to electrical boxes due to electricity AFAIK. Any ground-contact item can be colonized by fire ants. I have some spare planters filled with dirt that they love to take over.
No gasoline, please. Typically people don't light it to kill the ants, and it is effective. But gasoline itself remains toxic in the soil to everything for a very long time. It will spread and seep into the water table too. It's very irresponsible.
Any "traps" that drown, electrocute, or get stuck some ants will have little effect overall. You need to get a complete kill of 1000's in the mound at once to be effective. Just killing hundreds of scouts will not really do much to the mound. They just make more.
I heard there is (was) a system that flash-heated steam and forced it into a bell placed over the mount, thus parboiling the ants in a few moments. In practice I suspect getting the steam to infiltrate down through an underground mound would be a problem. There's no outlet so significant pressure could be required, yet it would seem difficult to make any sort of pressure seal between the bell and the ground. It might kill the grass too.
I'm tellin ya, spend $20 on a huge bag of generic brand of Amdro-type granules and you'll be good forever. It only takes like a teaspoon per mound to reliably kill them all. Actually one of the small containers I've used to exterminate my 1/2 acre and kill off all the new mounds for a long time.
Here in Australia, there has been a concerted campaign to get rid of fire ants. So far, the authorities seem to be winning, time will tell.
If any repellent device is found, I will definitely build one to get rid of the green ants that we get around here. Not as bad as fire ants but still very painful. (I never get bitten but my wife does and she hates them).
For anyone not familiar with fire ants,
This is what they look like. **broken link removed**
This is what bites look like. **broken link removed**
How about a fresnel lens over it. My kids say the pop when they use the little lens.. I have a 3'x4' on a stand but have not tried that. I would wet down around the hill first, so you to not set the house on fire.
And I think gas on the wasps is good enough, no match required. I think it somehow disolved their wings. If I am wrong, RUN!!!!!!
Just Mix some Sugar with Borax, pour it into the hole and let them eat it. They will also take it back to the Queen. It will eventually kill the entire nest and its not very poisonous to other animals.
Most ants like Sugar but Some ants like Protein. Peanut Butter is a Protein if they don't like the sugar.
Ljcox, checked out your web links yesterday. Heard of "Over and Out", neighbor used it one year (think when it was introduced), wasn't effective, he still got mounds, although his property doesn't seem to have as many. Ours are two different enviroments though, almost opposites. Mine is mostly grass (patchy and weedy), and little traffic. His is mostly landscape plants and mulch, very little grass (weeds actually), and high traffic (lots of cats, around 17), plus vehicles.
The other link was a good laugh. 'Causes ants to halucinate and kill other ants...', can't imagine LSD for ants. I'm no biologist or bug specialist. But did take the usual courses in college. Arthropods don't have that level of a nervious system. It's for indoor treatments, and I've yet to find any inside the house. But then again, my house is probably toxic, do to the excessive use of pesticides to control fleas when I had pets. No spiders, and just an occasional dead/dying roach.
Borax, the '20 mule team' brand. Yeah, that stuff is great. I mixed up a big batch when I had a cat (roaches). It's a 1:1 mixture of Borax and Powdered Sugar, with just enough water to make a thin paste. I kept it hydrated for a while, but after no longer finding wallcrawlers... I dried out, so I ground the residue into a fine powder and left it in the cat food cans I had used and put them back in hiding. Guess it's still working, been 4 years or so, and no live roaches, but then again the cat died 3 years ago, so no pet food lying around.
It works by interfering with their ability to absorb water. The arthropod muscles work on a hydrolic principal, so low on fluid means no mobility.
I research the web alot, and it seems that fire ants live on a liquid diet. They regurgitate (puke up) digestive enzymes, and suck up the resulting fluids, which the share with their friends (kind of gross). They do break off chunks of food items and carried them back to the colony, so other workers can do this as well. Kind of fill up on the fuids on site, and bring back a piece in the same trip, pretty efficient. Mostly they are interested in proteins and carbs, anything else is garbage. Cat feces is full of proteins, so probably why they like yard (f...ing neighbor's cats). Cat's diet is mainly protein.
Where I live, you can get a bottle of concentrated diazinon (which makes many gallons of *really* strong bug spray) at WalMart for about $8.
Probably the best thing to do is mix a nice big glob of that with about a gallon of water, and pour it over the mound. It should wipe them out within a minute or so.
Quite a few suggestions on how to deal with the ant problem, many I've heard or tried. But they all involve going out and dealing with these little invaders on a regular basis, which I've been doing for almost 20 years. It's pretty clear that this problem will never end (unless Iran get's their nuclear weapons).
It's my hope to find a solution that doesn't require a lot of interaction on my part. The ants sort of control the situation... They move in, forcing to respond by dumping chemicals until they are gone. I guess this makes me a control freak, a bascally brainless insect shouldn't be controlling my actions. I'm the dominant species, and should be able to figure a way to control the situation. True, the vast majority are content to dump the chemicals, maybe some even enjoy the thrill of the kill (gotta watch those people). These are relatively simple organisms, so there must be many simplist solutions.
Also, I use both, the latter is better. I spray the base of my house and the cedar siding every year (with borax and water). I have no grass, only pine leaves for a yard.. But I spray the plants as well and no problem.
Life is a very tenacious thing, especially insects...they have been around a lot longer than we have. Us more dominant? Perhaps, but they are masters of survival.
Well, I still say if you want to kill them and not use chemicals. Go to harborfeight.com and order that fly swatter. I have had a great time with it.. I live in the woods, work in the garage... "Master of survival" until they meet that thing. hehe..
**broken link removed**
You will find many uses for it for $2.99
Entertainment value rating:
I like the gas idea if it is not around the water system/well. Don't get caught in the US doing that.. If around the well, get a hose and turn it on and light the gas so it burns off (make sure hose is turned on and grass is not brown)..
Also, honorable mention, the fresnel lens. It depends on the time you have (how many lens and kids).
Best one is of course:
20 mule team borax and water, little sugar and spray it on..
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