Taking care of the fire ants.......

[fortyshooter]

Went down to the range today to spread kill bait around the possible fire ant mound. First one I have come across here in Va. so I am guessing that is what it is. Plan was for my buddy to back up my truck while I was on the tailgate to get over the mound. Then I would scatter the bait around perimeter of the mound. Saw a very active hole with ants about 6 ft. from the mound and assume that is an entry tunnel. So gave that a nice dump of yummy stuff. Hopefully this will make it to the queen and put an end to it.

[Shakey Jake]

It smells awful but I've found that Orthene works best down here in Texas.
Jake

[markiver54]

[Mags]

Talcum powder is supposed to work too. It's super fine. The ants track it into the nest. Social grooming of the ants to each other leads to suffocation by the powder.

[graywolf]

Will try the talcum powder. I got plenty ant beds to test it on.

[fortyshooter]

Talcum powder is supposed to work too. It's super fine. The ants track it into the nest. Social grooming of the ants to each other leads to suffocation by the powder.

May give that a try. When they sneeze you will see where the hidden tunnel holes are from the little white puffs!

Thanks for the ideas guys! Need to get rid of these things and don't how they got in my woods in the first place.

[BigAl52]

Talcum powder is supposed to work too. It's super fine. The ants track it into the nest. Social grooming of the ants to each other leads to suffocation by the powder.

May give that a try. When they sneeze you will see where the hidden tunnel holes are from the little white puffs!

Thanks for the ideas guys! Need to get rid of these things and don't how they got in my woods in the first place.

They probably came across the border with all the other pests

[CT_Shooter]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00407FUTA/?t ... AAAAAAAgwR

Advion Fire Ant Bait can kill a fire ant colony within a couple of days, and you can spread it over a yard for seasonal management.

Fire ants are different. They’re usually found only outside, they sting like hornets, and their mound colonies can take over a lawn. They’re extremely tenacious and invasive. In fact, if you live in any of the southern states that the USDA classifies as a “certain” fire ant region, there’s no hope of being totally rid of them—you can only keep them at bay. And you should: USDA expert Robert Vander Meer told us that “the venom it will inject you with does have the same type of proteins you would associate with bee and wasp stings … and could result in anaphylactic shock or a very serious allergic reaction.”

Fire ant bait typically comes as a granular corn grit mixed with soybean oil and a toxin. Usually you can spread a few tablespoons near an individual mound or spread the bait across an entire yard. Texas A&M’s Robert Puckett explained his recommended approach: “In the fall of the year you make a broadcast application … and you reduce the population of ants as the winter comes on. Come spring, if you have some that make it through that process—typically you have very few—you can treat those individually.”

Puckett also noted that spreading a fire ant bait across a lawn is very different from spreading a kill-on-contact pesticide. First, the amount you need for a fire ant bait to be successful is very small. To explain this, he said that with some products it’s as little as “11 granules per square meter.” This minimalist distribution combined with the exceptional foraging capabilities of fire ants makes it “unlikely that a bird or other non-target species would succumb to the effects of the toxin.” He added, “We don’t worry as much about non-target effects with those granular baits as we do with other treatment approaches.”

Spreading a kill-on-contact pesticide across your lawn is another story. “Once that active ingredient is released,” Puckett said, “there is going to be a long period of time during which it has to break down, and during that time if other non-target organisms come in contact with it, they can succumb to the active ingredient.” Another method of treating a fire ant mound is to use a drench, which is a combination of pesticide and water that you pour directly onto the mound. Vander Meer explained, “Those two methods require large amounts of insecticide.”

[fortyshooter]

Looking at getting a sprayer setup for my small cargo trailer I haul behind my lawn tractor and Kubota. Going to spray that 1 acre clearing where my range is which includes the current problem area. Also use it around the home for spot spraying. Might as well do my own pest control as I am paying 80 bucks every 2 months for a company to do it around the home now. I want my range area CLEARED of any hazard like these fire ants as they can have several access tunnel nest areas my eyes might not see when walking around and the safety of family members down there.
They are here now and will be around.

NUKE time!

[Cofisher]

Legalize recreational nukes! Saw that recently. Pretty funny.

[fortyshooter]

Legalize recreational nukes! Saw that recently. Pretty funny.

I have a few of those tennerite boomers that I would love to plant on the mound but way to close to my little storage cabin/sheds.

[BigAl52]

Cherry bombs and M-80's

[Headhog]

My first encounter with these little devils was when we lived in Georgia. I was out cleaning the filter for the pool and didn't realize there was an active nest there. All of a sudden my left leg was on fire. Seems these nasty little critters will climb up on you and then all sting at once. Fortunately I had the hose spray nozzle in my hand and quickly sprayed my leg down to get them off. I promptly went into my garage and mixed up a batch of Malathion and sprayed the area. That ended their residence near my pool filter. Unfortunately I had about 30 red welts only leg from their bites. Calamine is your friend.

Paul

[graywolf]

We never get rid of them here. Can make them move but not get rid of um. Ride by most any pasture and it's covered with them

[BrokenolMarine]

When we bought the farm here in Oklahoma, the one acre the farmhouse sat on was covered with Fire Ant mounds. We went to Home Depot and there were dozens of options to choose from. Liquids you spray direct. Concentrates you mix and spray from a broadcast sprayer. Granular you could spread with one of those push things you use for fertilizer. The young farm boy in the overalls said, "They will all work, but the best thing is this one. You walk around the yard and pour it direct from the bag on the top of the mound. Coat each one liberally and they will carry it down into the colony and in a few days you can rake the mound down and they will have died off or moved."


https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ortho-3-lbs ... /302681373

"What?"

"It's Oklahoma man... there will be bugs."

We bought a half dozen bags and followed his directions. We had mounds around the yard two feet in diameter and a foot to a foot and a half tall out by the fences along the hay fields. After a summer and fall of treating them, and staying on it, we buy a couple bags here, a couple there, but we catch them early and don't have that big issue.

We paid a PRO to come spray for the tarantulas, giant centipedes, huge beetles, and the Scorpions. The huge spiders and the scorpions were the ones that scared Tina the most. Especially when she turned up her boots before heading to the barn one morning and a pair of scorpions dropped out. These days, we mix our own and use the sprayer we bought that fits in the bed of the Ranger to cover the acre. LOTS cheaper. She has the pump sprayer she sprays the livestock with, she sprays the house and the two workshops using that.... works well.

Those fire ants will light you up!

As far as I know, they don't make a spray for venomous snakes, but a spray of buckshot seems to work... although Tina has done well with the pitchfork or the shovel.

[fortyshooter]

For now I will give the bait kill I spread around a chance to do its thing and see how it goes. We have some rain comiong in for the weekend so middle of next week I will put some holes in the mound and see what if anything comes out. A shotgun hole maker comes to mind!

[BrokenolMarine]

When we first bought the farm here, Tina was bush hogging the pastures and hit a fire ant village. Dirt flew. The wind whips down the range here, and she was down wind. Dirt blew all over her... But it wasn't just dirt. Fire Ant Special Forces Paratroops were landing all over the tractor... and Tina.

She stopped and jumped off... Did the spiderweb dance, knocking off ants, and even stripped off her T-shirt and used IT to whip away the little fellers. She was in the middle of the pasture alone... No pics on the internet.

After that... She bush hogs fire ant mounds from UP wind.

[BrokenolMarine]

She was quick, or they were stunned... Not one bite.

[markiver54]

She was quick, or they were stunned... Not one bite.

[Travlin]

Another very bad one to watch out for are yellowjackets. They live under ground and can have a very large honey bee comb type nest always with a back door. I have run a lawn mower over them on two occasions and was bitten before I knew what was going on. A little powerful insect spray at dawn when they are in the nest or I have seen a pro come at dawn with a weed burner shot down in the whole and that did the job.