I hate fire ants. I hate them with an intensity that rivals that of my hatred for the UNC athletics program. I hate them more than some politicians who shall remain unnamed (since we’re not in the Pit, and I don’t want this to turn into one of those threads).
The fire ants have invaded my yard. My entire fucking yard. I thought we might be able to come to some sort of truce since winter is coming, and they’d go dormant for a couple of months. Last night’s rain changed that. They all climbed out of their mounds, and invaded our gazebo. They also invaded the dog. The poor animal was covered with them when he came in this morning. He had to come tell me “Hi,” so I became covered in them.
The dog seems fine, just itchy. My arms and fingers are all red and swollen, but I’ll live, but the fire ants must die.
I am looking for advice/recommendations for killing an entire yard full quickly and painfully. The more painful the better. If I have to sacrifice quickness for pain, that’ll be fine. The most important thing would be completeness. We’re talking genocide here. I want Idi Amin to be envious with the carnage. I want Pol Pot to call me for advice.
We don’t have fire ants where I live, but it seems to me if they’re that bad you probably want to call in a professional exterminator. Slip the guy an extra $20 to make sure the little bastards die slowly and in great pain.
Our problem isn’t as extreme so for us a .22 works just fine. You, however, may need to resort to a 270 or possibly even a 7 mag. Tip: buy in bulk.
Have you tried the prevention products available in hardware stores? Usually I’ll treat the entire yard at the start of the season with a granular product, one of the diazanon replacements. Be sure and do beds too as they especially seem to like elevated vegetated areas.
Also get some of the spot treatment stuff (like Amdro) to sprinkle around any mounds you might come across. It works in one of two ways, either tracked in or brought in as a food and fed to the queen. These should clear out a nest within several days.
I believe there was a thread awhile back talking about the use of… was it Borax? Something that crystallized the ants. Let me see if I can track that down…
Sounds like a professional job to me. But for my own vindictive mental health, I’d start by dousing the fuckers in gasoline and lightin’ 'em up. The lawn no longer matters. This is war!
When I lived in FL, we had a problem with fire ants in our yard. Our yard was pretty sandy soil. I found the best way to get rid of them is to take a broomstick out to the yard and find the mound. Jam the broomstick into the ground as hard as you can in the middle of the mound. There were some mounds in my back yard that went down more than 4’, so you really have to jam it in there. Then, take regular gasoline and saturate the hole you just made. If you really want to get back at those nasty little suckers, you can throw a match at them and watch em burn as they scurry out of their hole.
Do this at your own risk. I’m sure it is not environmentally safe and it is potentially dangerous. I’m just telling you how I got rid of the problem in my yard.
On preview I see that Kalhoun has already suggested gasoline and fire. If you make the hole first, it does less damage to your yard.
This has occurred to me, but Mrs. Magill has put the kibosh on any method that involves burning the house down, or blowing me up*.
I use the spot treatment on mounds I see, which works great. I like to attack the mound with a trowel first that gets an eruption of soldiers for maximum exposure. Unfortunately, I cannot see any mounds in the yard now. The fuckers are getting smart.
At least until she gets another couple insurance policies out on me.
It is a never ending battle in the south with those nasty suckers. Usually I just treat the mounds as they pop up and that works out pretty well. However, I did get the same kind of infestation once and called a service to do the entire lawn. Cost about 150 dollars but it was worth it. However, they do come back and you need to keep on top of them constantly.
I know there are services that come monthly but I didn’t find that worth it when the granules or boric acid work fine as long as you keep your eye out for them before it gets bad.
I’ve been using AMDRO faithfully since arriving in Houston last year. It’s great to see the little fuckers carry that stuff down the hole, then ie in a few days.
I used some AMDRO a few weeks ago. Properly applied it around, but not on the nest. As the little buggers came out of the nest, they would pick up a granule, carry it a couple of feet away from the nest, set it down and go on their way.
First time I’d seen anything like it. Made me wonder if I was seeing evolution in action.
When I lived in Ms. the county extension agent provided poison for fire ants, you might give your county agent a call. Farm supply stores may be a better source than a hardware supply.
Orthene powder works by far the best for me down here in south Louisiana. You can buy it in any decent stized store with a Home and Garden department. You sprinkle it over the mound and its perimeter, and no more ants within 24 hours. That’s not to say, though, that they didn’t just pack up and move to another place. Every time my neighbor sees me sprinking ant hills, he always says the same thing, “Movin’ the ant beds, huh?”
I hate those bastards. I’m pretty allergic to ant bites. I wish I could hear their tiny screams.
I have heard that spreading Malt O’Meal (or anything similar) will kill them - they bring it back to their nest, feed it to their queen, and the puffed cereal expands in their stomachs and kills them. Since it takes out the queen, the nest won’t repopulate.