Killing Ants

[Highbeam]

Supposedly, carpenter ants do NOT eat the wood. They carve out tunnels to live in and have to leave the nest to get food.

There comes a time when an exterminator along with his extra special good chemicals becomes necessary.

 

[dmccarty]

In our old house in town we had Carpenter ants in the exterior bathroom wall. Every so often we would see them in the bathroom but not often. We only knew they where living in the wall when I ripped the bath tub surround down to the studs. The tile job was done wrong and water from the shower would leak into the wall cavity. No obvious damage from the water but the insulation was wet. The ants where in the insulation. No damage in the wall from the water or the ants.

We also had ants that would go for the garbage can in the kitchen that was a constant battle to kill. I would spray and spray and spray.

The fire ants where easy to kill in comparison. Much easier.

In the new house we have only had on ant trail into the house and that was a surprise. We had some mice get into the house and had to set traps. We had checked the traps in the morning and sometime after that a mouse found the peanut butter. I got home from work and found the trail of ants going to and from the dead mouse. Very impressed that the ants, in less than 10-12 hours had found the dead mouse. Threw out the mouse. Sprayed the ants and they have not returned. Nor has the mouse.

Later,
Dan

 

[Bird]

i bought 2 quarts of the permeathins last week and plan on keeping up the battle

I wish you luck. I've heard and read lots of good things about permethrin and maybe it's good, but the only time I ever used it, the insects seemed to really appreciate it and thrived on it. So I never bought anymore.

 

[Redbug]

I use an ant bait called "Once and Done". It works pretty good on the mounds. Just sprinkle a tablespoon amount, (give or take), on and around the hill and the cute little buggers take it inside. No watering, so it's easy to use. It seems to work faster than Amdro. Hopefully, one day a scientist will develop a disease that will devastate fire ants. That man will earn the Nobel Prize!

Down in the south, the only real method to get rid of your fire ant problem is to MOVE!

 

[Soundguy]

Around my farm I pretty much exclusively use permethrin oil mixes or dusts.

You may have got a real weak batch.. cuz the stuff I get .. you can sprinkly it on ants.. and within 30 seconds they flail around.. and are dead within the minute.

Same with the oil emulsion spray..

Soundguy

I wish you luck. I've heard and read lots of good things about permethrin and maybe it's good, but the only time I ever used it, the insects seemed to really appreciate it and thrived on it. So I never bought anymore.

 

[heehaw]

thats been my experience with it too: but it doesn't seem to have much residual killing power..
heehaw

 

[dmccarty]

Down in the south, the only real method to get rid of your fire ant problem is to MOVE!

Yeah, but the problem is that the fire ants FOLLOW!

When I first moved to NC years ago the fire ants where in the counties far to the south of me. Now the fire ants are in my back yard.

Supposedly they will stop marching north at some point maybe when they hit permafrost....

Later,
Dan

 

[Bird]

The odd thing about fire ants (to me) is that you can broadcast the bait, then treat individual mounds with a drench and it can appear that you have eliminated the fire ants. And then the first time you have a big rain, new mounds will pop up here and there. When I bought my 10 acres in the country, it was covered with huge fire ant mounds, but after applying Logic and liquid Diazinon, I eliminated them on the approximately 3 acres around the house and barn. Then when we had a big rain, I'd find as many as a dozen small mounds and would apply one gallon of liquid to each and I'd see no more until the next big rain, when it would be the same thing all over again.

 

[MississippiMan]

here is what i know about fireants:

-they are territorial, so you will only have so many mounds per acre and no more

-you kill the ones you have and others will move in. in that sense you will never win

-bait is more effective than poison in killing the queen

-if you don't kill the queen you have wasted your time and money

- i have had great luck using diatomaceous earth. when the nest is disturbed some of the ants will rush to the queen to see if she is okay and all they have to do is transfer a single grain of it to her to kill her. (they bleed to death) of course the others ants will all die from contact.

- but like i mention before, others just move in and take their place.

 

[Podunkadunk]

I'd say about 2 gallons of gas for that size mound. To me, nothing works better than gasoline for killing yellow jackets of fireants. (Given it's far enough away from your home or another building)

Take a piece of rebar, pipe or shovel handle, about 5-6 feet long, stick it through the middle of the mound, then jab it again next to that...repeat and keep repeating. When you have holes down to where the pipe hit's hard dirt (the mound dirt will be soft for a good couple/three feet down), pour your gas all over the top of the mound and into the holes, then pour you a trail 20-30 feet away from the mound. Let it soak in for a good minute or two, then light the gas trail (preferably with a match, as you can "toss" it).

Stand back, drink a beer and enjoy your victory.

Repeat in a couple days if necessary, but, I've never had enough survivors to rebuild the mound.

With Yellow Jackets, don't light the gas, just pour a gallon or two down the hole and walk away. The burn method doesn't work with them, I don't know why. I found that out last year, had to burn them out 3 times before I finally got them. Oh yeah, be sure and do this at NIGHT when you are gassing yellow jackets...they aren't active at night and they will all be in the hole.

Podunk