We don't have fire ants - but all the other kinds. I use Home Defense - get it at Walmart or Lowes and it gets rid of them. I believe when I was a kid and lived in FL, I remember people using kerosene??? Or gasoline - not sure about that.
FireAnts are impossible to get rid of..what we do is MOVE THEM! The Exterminators have the most powerful poison. AMDRO IS THE NEXT BEST and I have bought a ton of it over the past 25 years. The fire ants have a zillion little underground tunnels. The purpose of dry poison is that the ants carry it back to the Queen Ant and it kills her. Pouring something liquid down the hole is futile. They can simply step out of the way and hide in a tunnel. When we kill one bed, the critters move to another place in the yard via one of their tunnels and come up there. Hopefully, there comes a time when they have moved enough to come up in your neighbor's yard...(grin).
Oh my Gosh, I didn't know they were that hard to get rid of and Nancy, they're already in our neighbors yard also.
Bluedaze, we do live in the south (Tennessee) but not the deep south. This is the first time we've ever seen them. A friend who used to live in Mississippi told me what they were. I think they have just migrated here.
I've researched some on the internet. Boiling water or garlic juice was recommended as safe for the environment but if they have lots of underground tunnels, that wouldn't work. Nancy, you said you've bought a ton of dry poison. Did they survive all that? Would they survive treatment by a pest control company?
We've had infestations at our beach home, our rental properties and - of course = our house. They go away and come back the next year.
I don't know if this is true or not, but years ago, I was told there was a horrible drought in the Southwest, and traincar loads of hay bales were donated to our ranchers by their counterparts in Mexico. The fireants were supposedly in the haybales, because they were so common in Mexico. Bringing them into the USA was an accident as they piggybacked good will donations from farmers and ranchers that had good crops to share. Initially they were in Texas, and gradually migrated to Oklahoma and other states. They cannot live in the cold, so it just depends on how deep the freeze line is beneath the soil surface - as to whether or not they come back the next year.
I am the fireant champion of the world...I get at least 10 bites a day, and my record is 84 bites....and Amdro is the best product on the market...It evicts them from your yard, and they move to your neighbor's. And when you are not looking, they sneak back in... I have also heard that you take some ants from one anthill and put them into another one......they fight until they all die....I tried that, but lost patience to see who won...
Phranque, how did you get all those ant bites? Did you get them while watching the war between the ant hills? I do love your humor and I'm so sorry you're having such a rough time right now.
My mower got tangled in barb wire, so without thinking, I raised the deck and looked under it.....and I was right on top of a huge anthil.....before I knew it, I had ants in my pants......and got bit in some unique places that hurt a whole lot more than usual....I learnt to look before I leap.....
I have read that fire ants can bring down a large animal like a cow by somehow signalling each other to all sting at the same time. One sting is enough for me.
"ANDRO FIRE ANT KILLER is just about the best I've found. Sprinkle on the mound and they die--the whole mound. Anything less and they just move and get bigger! There is an ORTHO/ORTHENE one that works as well--same chemical, different manufacturer. Watering the mound does not work--they just move and come back worse."
"Have you heard of the new raspberry crazy ants--they are now in TX and causing even worse problems than the fire ants!!!"
This from my sister who now lives in San Antonio. When living in Arizona some years ago, she had the misfortune to mow the top off a fire ant mound and walk through it, before she realized it. Drs. credited her foresight in racing straight in to the shower and flushing them off as she shed her shoes and clothes. Threw on a light shift and her husband ran her straight in to the ER. Only had an overnight stay as they treated her for anaphylactic shock. Had some very sore feet and legs. Drs. said if she'd tried to just brush them off and treat herself at home she coukld have died.
Fireants definitely can kill a baby calf in a pasture.Outdoor newborn Baby kittens and puppies , Frank, I had a landscape experience to share. I was clearing up some trimmed pampas grass and carrying it to the big wagon. Suddenly, I felt the oddest sensation moving up my leg, and I just KNEW KNEW KNEW...it was a SNAKE, beyond a shadow of a doubt. (We lived on a lake, and little snakes were not at all uncommon. Not a single thought flashed through my brain other than something was crawling up my leg. In front of everyone I ripped off my sweat pants ..before you could blink your eye...only to discover it was an errant blade of pampas grass that worked its way beyond my shoe and up my pant leg. ... my husband and the helpers laughed themselves sick! They'd have felt really bad if it HAD been a big ole rattlesnake.
If you are allergic to fire ants, it can be fatal. My cousin was bitten by numerous fire ants all at once, and felt her throat closing up. Her husband got her to the emergency room in the nick of time, and now she carries an epi-pen with her always.
Even if you are not allergic, they are nasty, nasty bites. I have had few on my feet, and it took at least two weeks for them to clear up. They itch, hurt, and leave big white bumps.
The Crazy Rasberry ant or Rasberry Crazy ant is an invasive species of ant found near Houston, Texas.[1][2]
The species has been named "crazy" because of the ants' random, nonlinear movements, and "Rasberry" after the exterminator Tom Rasberry who first noticed they were a problem in 2002.[1] Scientists believe they are related to the Caribbean crazy ant. This ant has yet to be identified as a species due to confusion regarding the taxonomy of the genus, and has for now been scientifcally named Paratrechina species near pubens.[3] There is currently a large infestation in at least 11 counties in Texas.[4] The ants appear to prefer the warmth and moistness of the coast.[5]
The ants are about 3 millimeters long (equivalent of one-eighth inch) and are covered with reddish-brown hairs. The colonies have multiple queens.[6] They feed on ladybugs, fire ants and Attwater's prairie chicken hatchlings, as well as plants. They are able to out-compete fire ants because they reproduce faster.[5] The ants are not attracted to ordinary ant baits, are not controlled by over-the-counter pesticides,[7] and are harder to fully exterminate because their colonies have multiple queens.[8]
[edit] Attraction to electrical equipment
[citation needed]
It is unclear why this species, like many varieties of ants, is attracted to electrical equipment, including computers and air conditioners. It may be that they sense the magnetic field that surrounds wires with electric current flowing through them. Or, they might prefer the heat byproduct of resistance in the wires. However, it could simply be that they are searching for food or a nesting location that is easy to defend.
Their infestation of electrical equipment can cause short circuits when they chew through insulation. Overheating and mechanical failures can also be caused by high numbers of dead workers in electrical devices.[9]
The coverage rate of the ant itself is about 800 meters (about ½ US mile) per year. However, being carried by people, animals, and vehicles, the Crazy Rasberry Ant has covered five counties in Texas from 2002 to 2007. This yields a rate of 8 kilometers (about 5 US miles) per year. At this accelerated rate, it would take about 70 years for them to reach New Orleans, 563 kilometers (or 350 US miles) away.
Control
In June 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency granted temporary approval for the use of fipronil to control this ant. The pesticide is already used for termite control. Its use is restricted to 7 counties in the Houston, Texas area.[10] As of May 2009, the ants continue to spread and have reportedly caused millions of dollars in damage in 11 Texas counties.[4]
I'm also glad I live up north where our bugs don't get too big either and they pretty much are gone all winter. There are only two things that have kept me up north: my parents being one and the size and quantity of bugs down where it is warm. I still have the picture in my mind of being on a road trip to San Antonio from Dallas (where I have relatives) with my parents and my godmother when I was about 12 and we stopped at a rest stop. Well, there in the corner of the women's restroom was a tarantuala (which looked huge to me) moving up and down on his legs. My godmother had me watch it while she went to the bathroom and then watched it for me while I went. It's been almost 40 years since then but I can picture it like it happened yesterday. LOL
I remember taking a skirt out of the closet in Houston (fairly far-out suburb with field behind us) and feeling something brush my leg - it was a scorpion. Then there were the roaches. Water bugs. Whatever. My husband used to grind them down the disposal - it was the one thing I couldn't touch! and that so revolted me he started just picking them up and putting them out the back door. Then he developed a new method - squirt bottle of water and dish detergent. It clogs their spiricles and they die on the spot. That worked fine but I was not sorry to move away from them. Mosquitoes. For unknown reasons it has NOT been a big mosquito year up here, but yesterday I got a bite. One bite. It is still swollen, about 1" around! In Texas, of course, there were dozens of them on every limb, every year.
I like being up north in general though. Can't wait for the leaves to start turning - how is it in Maine, Susan?
When I was doing primary care in New Jersey I had a family where all members had severe sinus disease. Finally they gave up and moved to Arizona. Now the sinuses were OK, but the wife found a rattlesnake in the washing machine. So, back to NJ where their first stop was to my office to treat the sinus problem. Another trip to Arizona was terminated when the wife found a tarantula in her shoe. This went back and forth for several rounds trying to decide whether the critters of Arizona or the sinus trouble of NJ were worse.
Briegull, the trees on the coast are just beginning to turn. Another couple of weeks should bring us to full color.
Frank - good to see your humor is back. I know it is a lot of pressure to be the uplifter on this site, but someone has to bring smiles to our hearts and faces.
FYI, Texas tarantuas are not poisonous..true!, but they scare you to death. I'm told most of the snakes are not poisonous, and actually are good for the ecology, but they scvare me to death. Re" roaches, etc., Don't bother me at all. Same with the little pesky spiders. Just kill em. I have a contract with an exterminating company that comes monthly (I think!) and there ain't no bugs on me.. (as the commercial singing commercial goes).. You never let down your guard though. I had my pager on "vibrate" during church and when I got into the car, I put my handbag in the floorboard. The pager went off. brrrrrrr brrrrrrr brrrrrrr and I nearly wiped out three lanes of traffic on Interstate 10..thinking a rattle snake was on the floorboard. I was driving with my feet up on the seat!!!
Marsh, The Fall in the Upstate of South Carolina was the most beautiful season I had ever seen. In Texas, we don't have the trees that change colors nor do we have the gradual cooling of temperatures. Every day there was like a beautiful calendar page.
Nancy's right about the poison of tarantulas. The Zoo likes to have various "education animals" that we can take out to schools* and tarantulas are often in the mix, along with skinks, tenerecs, possums, etc. The word is on tarantulas that you have to be very careful of them or they will BREAK.
Break. Shatter. and they do, too! I can't imagine anything worse in front of a classroom of kids.
*one legacy of my mother's TB was that I test positive - don't have TB but apparently did at some point when I was a child, and ever thereafter test positive. Since some animals can get TB from people, to handle zoo animals you always have to have a TB test; if the skin test is positive you have to have an x-ray and that is a pain to set up, so I say fuggedaboutit. I handled many a beastie when my boys were in that stage, so I don't need to feel the fuzz of a guinea pig or drop a tarantula!