WARPATH! Defeating the fiery Hoard

[Lady Lavender]

As I look out across my lawn in the morning light, I see them, like so many miniature volcanoes ready to erupt into an angry bitey hoard. Fire Ants...How I hate them! This war between us shall never end until I have defeated each and every last one of them and their little Queens too! I am contemplating regicide on a massive scale! I shall be the Oliver Cromwell of my property!

I would normally douse their mounds liberally with ant poison but now that my Lady Lavender roams the land, I don't want any harm to come to her.

What do you use to get rid of your own evil hoard without harming your little beauties?

 

[dannigirl]

I would try diomatatious earth--it is used in swimming pools and you can sometimes get it at places like tractor supply or rural king. It kills them with microscopic shards of fossil that are way too small (it looks like flour) to hurt anything larger than a large spider.

 

[REO]

I *thought* that I read somewhere that if you sprinkle corn meal around their hole, they'll eat it and it'll kill them?

Has anyone else heard this or tried it? I've always wondered!

 

[fourluckyhorseshoes]

Gasoline? You could section off the area and most likely your horse wouldn't eat their anyway because of the smell.

 

[Marty]

A very bad problem I had in Florida. You kill one mound, so you think, and they move 3 feet over and start another mound.

I use corn starch in the fields. That does work.

 

[Callie]

Hi Marty,

How do you use the corn starch? That is one thing I haven't tried. They are never ending in Texas.

 

[REO]

I googled Corn Meal (like I posted about before)

Fire Ant Killer (Corn Meal)



Corn meal: To rid your house or lawn of these pesky insects sprinkle corn meal on their mounds at night. The ants will take the corn meal into their nest for the queen to eat and it will kill her.

Posted by


Tonyat

4:47 PM


Labels:Ant Killer

4 comments: iansaid...

GAS and KERO will poison the soil they contact directly for decades (check out the EPA advice), and then leach their way into you and your neighbours' water supply, killing plants, fish, birds and eventually you too.
1001Usessaid... Ian,
Thanks for your comment. I don't know what kind of fire you ants you have in your area but here in Tennessee and also in South Carolina, at my dads house, the corn meal worked on about 5 different occasions. Now I admit that we had to do several applications but they bugged out.
Let me know you area as I'm more than a little curious if you have a different species.

Thanks,
Tony

January 3, 2008 at 7:27 PM COLTsaid... THE ANTS WILL BRING THE CORNMEAL INTO THE NEST TO EAT. WITH THE SURROUNDING MOISTURE IN THE GROUND IT WILL TURN INTO METHANE GAS AND DROP TO THE DEPTHS WHERE THE QUEEN IS. KILLS THEM ALL

November 2, 2009 at 1:50 PM Richard Csaid... I know it sounds completely out there, but there is NOTHING that works like corn meal. It's not an over-night fix - takes about a week or so (btw, I live down here in Texas) - but corn meal is without question the world's best unknown fire ant killer!

June 30, 2011 at 8:00 PM

Sounds like it wouldn't hurt to try.

 

[Windhaven]

I am going to get corn meal soon. Because the mounds are coming up fast all over the place. Love this idea and hope it works.

 

[Lil Eowyn]

Fire ants are so annoying!

 

[Lloydyne]

don't just sprinkle the corn meal....I did that and my horse was eating it......the ants too. What I heard is the ants eat the cornmeal and it swells in the bodies and explodes them. I used a broom handle ...made a hole and poured it down the hole.

 

[Lady Lavender]

Wow! Corn meal, I have never heard of using it for fire ants but I'm going to try it. If it works, I will be so happy. I try not to use poisons in my yard or home because of the potential harm they could cause my animals but fire ants...ooh..they deserve to die by any means! I will let you know if it works!

Thank you for all the advice and info!

Katrina

 

[Lindi-loo]

Wow not having any sorta ant problems here in the UK, Im really supprised to hear that they cause so many problems

..amazing it can be cured with corn meal..Its breeding season here for the moles atm hmmm theyr the kind of mounds that i hate

 

[wildoak]

Fire ants are horrible here.. I keep a shaker can of fire ant killer on my golf cart and treat mounds as I see them. The horses seem to leave it alone, its just a little sprinkled directly on the mound and most of them - I hope - are smart enough not to graze the ant mounds LOL. I will try corn meal though, sounds like a great solution as long as the horses don't eat it. (something perceived as food might override that instinct to not stick your nose in a fire ant mound!)

Jan

 

[Lady Lavender]

An idea for those of us with only a small bit of land to treat. A neighbor suggested placing upside down flower pots on the large mounds and coffee cans on smaller mounds and using either fire ant poison or the cornmeal then removing the pot after the mound is dead.