For the first time,I have ant hills in my yard, 3 within 10 feet of my front door**. Is this something I don't want? I have a feeling that I don't.
If I don't want them, is there an effective, perhaps easy way to get rid of them?
** (or maybe one big hill with three entrances)Thanks a lot.
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Have you tried phoning or visiting a local garden center, telling them you problem and seeking their advise? We don't know where you live, so we have to guess a bit about what may be legal to purchase and use in your area. We also don't know if you have children or pets, which can be a concern if they may come in contact with the chemical that you use.
I still use Diazinon on ant hills, but I stockpiled quite a bit of the chemical before it was outlawed for sale in the U.S. a few years ago. Still, there are certainly many suitable replacement products on the market. I just sprinkle a generous amount around the ant hill. Dursban should be almost as good if it is still sold.
Good luck, Gideon
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If I don't want them, is there an effective, perhaps easy way to get rid of them?
** (or maybe one big hill with three entrances)Thanks a lot.
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I've had good sucess with fire ant mounds in the yard using Beyer's Fire Ant powder (which I bought at Lowe's). You just sprinkle a little on the mound and then trickle a little bit of water over it. Do not drown the hill and don't kick it either... you don't want to stir up the residents who might then move. The idea is that the workers should track the stuff in while doing their normal chores and take it back to the queen. When the queen dies, the colony dies.
Be on the lookout for additional mounds... there's seldom only one.
Did I mention I hate the little bastards?
DE might be a good thing to try (Diatomaceaous Earth - finely ground microorganism fossils), though you'll want to read up on whether it's effective for outdoor use. It's not a poison, the fine crystaline edges of the powder actually cut the ants' exoskeleton as they walk through it and they basically "bleed" to death. It's nontoxic to humans and pets and usually is found in garden centers.
I have had sucess with plain ole Borax on some kinds of ants. Its cheap and you may already have some in your house for cleaning purposes. Just dust the mounds and immidiate area with it plus any visible ant trails if you have them.
In article , NOPSAMmm2005 @bigfoot.com says... :) If I don't want them, is there an effective, perhaps easy way to get :) rid of them? :) :) Any insecticide solution that is mixed water then drench the mound will work easily enough, even if you decide to dilute it more than what is called for. A cantaloupe size mound will get about a gallon. Baits can be another alternative, but you need to know what type of ant you are dealing with.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com says... :) I have had sucess with plain ole Borax on some kinds of ants. Its cheap :) and you may already have some in your house for cleaning purposes. Just :) dust the mounds and immidiate area with it plus any visible ant trails :) if you have them. :) :) the problem with borates is that it is a repellant and by dusting mounds can actually cause the colony to "bud", where now that you see the one inactive mound you may have three active mounds that will show themselves in a couple of weeks.
I have had great luck using Malathion on my ants - kills them dead and no new ones come to replace them. If you want to know more us the following URL.
Thanks to all of you. I should have given more details, but when I started to post, the question was meant only to be, Do I want to get rid of them? All three of you imply that I do, so I will start.
BTW, I had diatomaceaous earth in my chemistry set when I was about
(no kids and none that visit, I live in Baltimore.)
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IMHO, it depends on the ants. Back when I lived in fire ant country, ants were battled with every means under the sun. Times I've lived up north (such as now), I basically just ignore 'em unless they decide to come in the house.
"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" wrotenews:p2I9f.41$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.southeast.rr.com:
If it's fire ants, Amdro works great.
They carry the bits back to their queen to eat, and whammo! If you don't kill the queen, she just goes into overdrive and makes more workers.
If you sprinkle just a little bit all over your yard and over your neighbor's yards, you'll go a whole year without ants.
It's a yearly thing since queens can fly miles.
I go bonkers every time I see a post about an ant hill in the yard that NEEDS to be eradicated. It is pointless and foolish, and has a better chance of harming the environment than doing any good. Treat problems that threaten the house, yard. Ants are often beneficial (pollinating, eating other critters, etc.) and the poison adds up. If a couple of ant hills bother you, you need a hobby other than exterminating :o)
The only ants I f*ck with are fire ants... and they started it. I was standing outside talking to the mailman when I noticed that something was biting the crap out of me. It turned out I was standing on a little flat spot that fire ants had cultivated. Ever since then, I've taken a perverse pleasure in wiping the little bastards off the face of the earth. If that isn't green enough for you, so be it.
I actually haven't seen the ants yet. Don't know what they are. There's not a lot of traffic, but maybe I haven't looked closely enough. (Found another hill on my property in the back yard but pretty far from the house.)
It gets down to 40 at night, 60 in the day. Is it now or will it soon be so cold that the population won't grow until spring?
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The easiest way to tell what kind of ants they are is to step on the mound for a moment. If ants start swarming out by the hundreds, it's probably fire ants. If you're not sure, just keep standing on the mound.
this is Turtle.
Hey Don't be talking bad about my little friends in the hvac business. Ants product about 1 in 5 service calls of the ants nest in the outdoor equipment and messing with the controls. that is about 20% of my service calls / business is generated by ants in the residentiual HVAC business.
TURTLE
I've stepped on all three at various times because they're in my way. AFAICT, nothing is coming out of them. If there was a hole in the top, it hasn't been redug.
It's too early for cold weather to have slowed them down, isn't it. It hasn't been below 60 during the day, I think. Certainly not below
Do they have fire ants in Baltimore? I thought they were like in Arizona.
I haven't made it to the garden shop yet., but the hills aren't getting bigger.
And I'm considering Norminnn's laissez faire policy. I figured there would be another side. :)
(My roommate did his thesis on leaf cutter ants in Costa Rica. They were interesting. And I got bit by one or two ants that live in thorns there. Not rose thorns, something else, longer more woody thorns, with a hole in the base of each one that the ants use to go in and out. One or two hurts a bit, but some people get hundreds and that's really bad.)
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We sure as hell have them in the Carolinas. If they're not all the way to MD yet, they're coming.
Fire ants are not part of my ecology :o) I used to do nature photography, when I was new to Florida. I invariably found the perfect spot for my tripod was on top of a fire ant mound :o) Took a while before they had me trained. The nastiest trait they have is that a bunch of them are on you before you know it, and then they all bite at once. At least they don't hang on like carpenter ants do :o)
A tiny bit of Amdro, properly placed, goes a long way. Putting it down just before rain or lawn watering is a waste. Ours came out right away to gobble it up and take it down the tunnel :o)
I suppose that eventually the pythons, toxic toads, eels, walking fish, etc., that have been imported will start balancing other unsavory pests :o) Did you see the python that swallowed a six-foot gator? Wow! I have a feeling the poodle population might be in trouble :o) I wonder where they are taking all the formosan termites from New Orleans that are in the ruined structures being taken down?
In article , snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net says... :) I wonder :) where they are taking all the formosan termites from New Orleans that :) are in the ruined structures being taken down? :) :) La. has contracted out with dump sites in Texas and Arkansas....
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