GT - This one's for you

If I remember right, you spend lots of your free time exterminating fire ants - you can ignore this if I've got you mixed up with someone else ( one of the hazards of getting older)

Hope for Eradicating Red Fire Ants

Red fire ants were accidentally introduced into the United States in 1929 from South America. Each year they spread farther north from their foothold in the Southeast, often overtaking native ants along the way to become the dominant species. The pest, officially Solenopsis invicta, now resides in 14 states.

Red ants are known for their sting, which brings painful meaning to the phrase ants in your pants.

A new discovery could help get rid of them.

About 40 percent of people in area infested by the fire ants are stung each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Fire ants dramatically reduce populations of native ants, other insects, and ground-nesting wildlife. They also damage crops and even electrical equipment. The USDA estimates damage and control costs at more than $6 billion a year.

The fire ants thrive here -- becoming a higher percentage of the ant population than in South America -- because in the north they lack natural enemies, scientists say.

In 1986, scientists found a natural enemy of the fire ant, a pathogen called Vairimorpha invictae. Now USDA scientists have figured out how to inject the pathogen into otherwise uninfected populations of fire ants.

"The ability to efficiently initiate field infections of V. invictae could result in faster declines in fire ant populations and provide a new, self sustaining tactic to suppress fire ant populations," the researchers write in a paper that's been submitted to the Journal Of Invertebrate Pathology.

-- Robert Roy Britt

Photo credit: USDA/ Scott Bauer

 

Yep, that's me, although I don't spend a LOT of time killing them. I find a mound, I poison it. Usually 2 or 3 a year. Haven't been stung yet; I'm careful where I put my feet.

There are 2 breeds of fire ants. One is native to the U.S., and while it's bite is painful, it doesn't do much real damage. The nasty one is the South American import, which does NOT have any natural predators, and is spreading out rapidly. That one has a venomous sting much like a bee or a wasp, and with enough stings, can kill an animal, or even a person, although that takes a LOT of stings unless you're abnormally allergic to the sting.

Maybe we should import South American ant-eaters... they love the little critters.

 

You might want to try boiling water it works great without any pesticides. Just pour boiling water over the mound every couple of days until they quit rebuilding the mound and they are all dead. Usually poison only moves them to your neighbors yard unless you have found a bait that works. The only problem with using water is it kills the grass which grows back pretty quickly.

 

Actually, the poison I use you pour on top of the mound (dry), then soak over a gallon of water down through it to get the entire nest, including the queen. If you don't get the queen, they WILL rebuild elsewhere. Kills 'em dead and doesn't wreck the grass. Instructions say to use a cup of poison & a gallon of water. I usually double that to make sure.

The poison "baits" that you just sprinkle on the ground are too subtle for me. I want to KILL them, not feed them lunch.

A gallon of gasoline poured down through the nest works well too, but it wrecks the grass around it for a couple of seasons.