Rambling about fire ants...

[sunspot]

Bird, here is a label shot.

http://www.scotts.com/smg/products/ortho/outdoor_bug_killers/fire_ants/pdf/Orthene_8-13-8.pdf

I had some rain yesterday so the mounds were easy to spot. I hit about a dozen mounds on the way to my mailbox. Sometimes the ants came boiling out just by the dusting. I'll check them tonight but they should be dead.

 

[Bird]

Thanks, Dana, I'll pick up some next time I'm at Home Depot. Our weather is overcast, cool, and damp, so the grass was really a bit wet, but I just finished mowing the yard and only found one fire ant mound. And since I already had a couple of gallon jugs of liquid insecticide mixed up, I applied one gallon of it to that little mound.

 

[Uncle Doug]

One way to kill fire ants: Turn them into headless zombies
Associated Press
May 12, 2009, 1:08PM


To kill fire ants, turn them into headless zombies | Top stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

 

[Richard]

This talk about ant mounds popping up...

I'm going to show my ignorance here (yet again )

Is this to say that in a given field, there might exist say, 5 ant colonies and they are 100% underground and otherwise, invisible to the eye?

Furthermore, when it rains, they for what ever reason (drowning? ) they come out of the ground and this is when you see the mounds pop up?

If this is reasonably accurate, then I could be walking in the field and step on top of a nest that is underground?

Do they react defensively if you walk over their ground, like they do if you step on their mound?



Side note: I went to my allergist today for my monthly sting shot. I asked the gal about fire ants and she told me that there are people indeed, who have allergic responses to them. Some people even go in for allergy shots for ants, like I do stingers.

 

[Bird]

This talk about ant mounds popping up...

I'm going to show my ignorance here (yet again )

Is this to say that in a given field, there might exist say, 5 ant colonies and they are 100% underground and otherwise, invisible to the eye?

Furthermore, when it rains, they for what ever reason (drowning? ) they come out of the ground and this is when you see the mounds pop up?

If this is reasonably accurate, then I could be walking in the field and step on top of a nest that is underground?

Do they react defensively if you walk over their ground, like they do if you step on their mound?



Side note: I went to my allergist today for my monthly sting shot. I asked the gal about fire ants and she told me that there are people indeed, who have allergic responses to them. Some people even go in for allergy shots for ants, like I do stingers.

Richard, I've never seen fire ants nor been stung without seeing a mound on the surface of the ground, but how many are underground? I have no idea. I read once that by the time you see a mound, that there are 300,000 ants in that colony, but I'm not sure who counted'em.

And why do they come to the surface after a rain? I don't know that either, but I know I can go months without seeing any in my yard, and one heavy rain and I'll have mounds popping up.

Down in Navarro County, I broadcast Logic a couple of times a year on the 3 acres around the house, barn, shop, and garden and I would usually not see any fire ants, or at least no more than one or two mounds until the next good rain and then I knew that 2 days later, I'd have at least a dozen mounds to treat with the liquid insecticide.

 

[J_J]

Years ago when I was landscaping, I reached down to pickup a candy wrapper, and about 13 fire ants came off that candy wrapper and starting bitting me before I could put it in the trash can I was holding. Of course I beat the hel* out of them, but, to late. My hand swells up like a baseball mitt and hurt and itched about 4 or 5 days. Now days, I do what I can to terminate them with extreme prejudice.

 

[sunspot]

Fire ants react to changes in temperature and to rain. When it's cool, they go deep. When it's warm, they are near or above the surface. When it's blister hot, they go down again.

During warm dry weather, I have seen them have a very low and spread out mound.

When it rains, they need to stay above water so they transfer soil upwards. They work like crazy in the rain.

That's why it's best to look for the little buggers a bit after a rain when the temperature is nice.

It's okay to step on them as long as you are moving. Stand on one for more than 30 seconds, you may be in for some worry.

Factoid; they can build about 40 colonies to the acre.

 

[podagrower]

A few firecrackers and some PVC glue can provide a few minutes entertainment (and panic). Toss the firecrackers into the mound, walk away for a day (the ants rebuild on top of the firecrackers). Come back the next day and drizzle the PVC glue on top. Light the glue and run!!! The glue will ignite the wicks, and when the firecrackers explode, ants will fly
Not EPA approved, but amusing.

 

[Richard]

Ohhhh, you're sick but I love it!

 

[ToadHill]

Two good things about Western New York winters No Fire Ants and No Africanized bees.