Fireants!!!!!

[robherc]

I'm glad suds worked for robherc, but all I got was clean fire ants with soft hands!

How much suds did you give 'em (per mound), and how thick did you mix it (i.e. how much soap per gallon) before application? The suds WILL kill any/all insects it's applied to, if enough gets on 'em & it's mixed strong enough...and it still sometimes takes 4-6 days to kill of an entire FA mound. (BTW, I tried the biodegradable degreaser again last night, but used about 5x as much as before....FAR better results than before with it...though now I'm using more $$$ per gallon with it than with the dish soap...so I'll be switching back as soon as this jug runs out)

[Slow Modem]

Also waging war with gophers here. The FA like to follow the gophers and make ant hills where the gophers have left their hills. I'm still thinking napalm, or very tiny thermonuclear devices . . . {growl}

I'm reminded of Bill Murray as the groundskeeper in Caddyshack going after the go-fers.

[Gypsi]

Our droughts kill the nematodes. In the areas of my yard that I keep moist - no fire ants. From the property line in they are reinvading now, carried by the flood down the street, and I will re-treat. My apiary area is deep in on my lot, and I will supplement with amdro as needed, but my soil type is black gumbo / rich topsoil, and not their favorite either. The nematodes like it. Like beekeeping, fire ant killing is a local matter. My point was nematodes didn't even hurt my tomatoes. Lack of bees hurt fruiting a couple of years ago, but not nematodes.

[Scrapfe]

Scrapfe, since I live only 20 miles from Shiner, would it be okay to substitute Shiner Bock for the Lone Star? ... I realize that tweaking the chemical composition of your remedy might make a difference...

Summer, relatively speaking the only one that it matters to is you. The fire ants don't care either way.
“If you got um, chug um!!!” ...Burp

[robherc]

I now have 3 live hives hanging from the stand I posted a pic of earlier... 0 Fire Ants have crossed the "grease zone" so far, and I have the number of mounds on the property in a bit of a decline! Thanks to everyone for your input; now for me to deal with the AHB (no, I didn't have her DNA tested, but she's unbelievably prolific, and her daughters are MEAN) Queen in one of the colonies...but that requires raising a few queen cells from the gentler colony first.......
Anywise, if anyone else is still having FA problems, feel free to commandeer the thread; I think my battle with 'em is finally turning in my favor

[dcerdeiras]

One trick I use on sugar ants was to sprinkle cinnamon on the inner cover of the hive. The bees don't mind (just don't drown them in the stuff), but the ants do. Some ant species are more resiliant to it than others, like the Florida carpenter ant (big ants that attack the hive for the larvae, scary sight), but repeated application over the ground and on the actual ant mound seemed to have driven them away for good. Don't know if it will work on fire ants as I have never had that problem, but it can't hurt to try (be sure to get a big container of the stuff).

[robherc]

I haven't tried the cinnamon trick myself, but I've heard several reports that it doesn't work on the RIFA ants... That said, has anyone had success fighting fire ants with cinnamon? If so, how much did you have to use, and how did you administer it?
...With soo many variables in beekeeping, I'm learning to never throw out an Idea just because it didn't work for a couple people. And, just as importantly, that just because something WORKED for a couple people doesn't mean it'll work for someone else.

[ycitybz]

I have had some trouble with ants here in Ohio and I sprinkled cinnamon. Worked great and have had no problems with them since. Not sure it will work with fire ants. Sounds like they are mean enough to take the cinnamon and make rolls with it...
Good Luck

[jim lyon]

My experience with RIFA is that there are plenty of products that will kill a given mound but their ability to reproduce and infest an area when the conditions are right is why they are so difficult to control. I have heard reports of people who have seen large clumps of them floating on a river like a large ball in floods until they reach dry land again. I thought perhaps after the record breaking drought here in East Texas that they might have really suffered a set back, no such luck they are back like nothing ever happened.

[Intheswamp]

M<snip> I have heard reports of people who have seen large clumps of them floating on a river like a large ball in floods until they reach dry land again. I thought perhaps after the record breaking drought here in East Texas that they might have really suffered a set back, no such luck they are back like nothing ever happened.

I haven't seen the floating colonies on a river but I've *definitely* seen them on some farm ponds. Bump into one of those piles with a boat and see what happens!!!!!!!!!!

Drought doesn't bother them, it's like they are like those kids toys that grow a zillion times bigger by "just adding water".

Ed

[GED]

Interesting experience today with fireants. I had a few ants in a hive cover and knocked them off, but they kept coming from somewhere. A close inspection revealed that the ants had made tunnels into the styrofoam cover and had their own nest right inside the hive. No more styrofoam for me. I used smoke to get them out since it was all that I had. They had a small hole out the top and numerous larger ones to the inside. I'm ordering a wood top Monday.

Ed

[Lburou]

Rob, I'm finding this thread late, but wanted to tell you a secret I used on my four acres of Brazos river bottom land in North Central Texas. When we bought this house five years ago, you couldn't step off the porch without stepping on a sandbur (also called grass burs) or a fire ant. Not even one step.

I'm still working on the sandburs and ants too, but can walk barefooted in the yard now without incident and haven't seen a fire ant in the yard for a year! An old timer living next door, much older than my 64 years anyway, helped me understand that you give the ants just enough poison to stay in the mound and die. Too much poison and they just move and start up ten feet away. His favorite poison was the white powdered Ortho stinky stuff. I prefer the Amdro bait. If you put too much down, they just move...You will have to experiment on your own to learn where the dance is on quantity. HTH

[robherc]

thanks for the tip Lee