Question for gardeners

[robbyr]

What is your preferred method of fire ant control in the vegetable garden? This year I built a few raised beds and debating on putting fire ant bait in the beds or mixing pyrethrin in a sprayer and spraying them. Need to do something soon.

 

[Sysop]

HGIC 1263 Controlling Fire Ants in the Vegetable Garden : Extension : Clemson University : South Carolina

Dealing With Ants In The Vegetable Garden | Veggie Gardener

 

[sseelhoff]

Napalm.

 

[ustmd]

Orange oil drench. You can get the orange oil at Lowes (in the gardening fertilizer section). You mix it 1/2 or 1 cup to a gallon of water and drench. For containers and raised beds, it works great.

Two great advantages:

1. It smells good

2. No concerns about chemicals affecting your food.

 

[robbyr]

Thanks for the ideas.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Don't have them up here as of yet so I have no experience dealing with them. What would happen if you piled a brush pile over their mound and burned it making them into literal fire ants?

 

[jimmyj]

I don't get fire ants but for "regular" ants we use diatomaceous earth with great success. Kills all bugs, isn't poisonous and it's cheap from the farm supply.

 

[robbyr]

Well I wish we could just ship you Northeners a passle of Fire ants.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Well I wish we could just ship you Northeners a passle of Fire ants.

Well it is the one hundred and fifty year anniversary of Lee's surrender at Appomattox so I hear where your coming from but you just keep you danged blamed fire ants to yourselves.

 

[txdon]

I covered a few with ashes from my wood burning stove - it worked, but I need more experiments to verify.