Fire ant control

[jinman]

Heehaw, here is a source for learning more about DE. I have never heard of it used for fire ant control, but on this site you can find more info about using citrus extract and soapy water to drench the mound and kill the queen.

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/article.asp?id=510

This is a natural way which does not pollute the environment with chemical pesticides and is not dangerous to children and pets (the most important feature).

JimI

 

[Bird]

Four or five years ago, some of the hardware and lawn & garden stores in this area were selling a high priced stainless steel contraption with a long pointed tube for "injecting" insecticides into fire ant mounds. Never knew of anyone using one and don't know whether they're still around or not.

Bird

 

[heehaw]

its easy for the folks that sell DE to say theirs is better, but no one seems to say what the difference is. we have a radio talk show here about organic gardening, and they really push DE. i called in about the spider problem, and was told DE will not help with spiders, because they walk on the tips of their feet, and don't get the DE on their body, the same reason poison doesn't work well. So no matter what type i put out, it wouldn't have helped. I'm just a little skeptical.
heehaw

 

[jinman]

You are probably right, Heehaw, especially if all you are using it for is insecticide. On the other hand, quite a few folks are using DE in petfoods to keep down intestinal worms, etc.. In that case, I'm pretty sure you would want to use a food grade product rather than the filter kind.

JimI