Do Anteaters Make Good Pets?

I wish you were joking. I can't even sit down on the dirt anywhere without them trying to crawl into my shorts.

Reply to
Ulysses
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This blue ant bait worked very well on my carpenter ants. I didn't use the bait traps, just squirt some in to bottle caps. I live alone, and so there's no "poison the kids or pets" worries.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

RoachPruf is a blue colored boric acid. You could mix it with sugar or grease as the bait. Lookup the concentration, you don't want it so strong that they die before feeding the queen!

Reply to
Phisherman

"Ulysses" wrote in news:h4ti7l$8nf$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

FIRE ANTS ARE NOT 1/2 inch long.

DONT put gasoline on the ground,it gets into the ground water and pollutes it,even a small amount of gas.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

Lucky you! How about those kids? Are they lucky enough to have built up an immunity to poison oak, too?

The Ranger

Reply to
The Ranger

Jim Yanik wrote in news:Xns9C58E3F3FD75Bjyanikkuanet@74.209.136.85:

Fire ants that big would really spook me knowing what the std 1/8" or so ones feel like.

That's right. You must be ecological. Recycle your used motor oil on them instead :-)

Reply to
Red Green

After reading the replies and some web sites and went and looked at them again and they are perhaps about 5/16" long.

I assumed whoever said to use gasoline was joking and my reply was not meant to be serious.

Reply to
Ulysses

Most of us experiemented with solar power when we were kids by using a magnifying glass to incinerate ants, right? Well maybe I could get a big lens and set it up over each ant hill for a while.

Reply to
Ulysses

micro-ants,

I read some more about anteaters and it looks like the problem is that they avoid eating the queen so the nest survives so they don't destroy their food supply. If only rabbits were that smart.

So far boric acid looks like the way to go.

Reply to
Ulysses

Thanks, I'm looking into it now. I'm not altogether sure which species of ants I have. The very tiny ones have never bitten any of us (that I know of) and the larger red ones might be too big to be fire ants but the bite sounds like a fire ant bite. Plus I have black ants of various sizes AND the red and black ants that appear to be a cross of black and red fire ants. I didn't even know they came in black. My dog seems to have come to an understanding with the bigger red ants (whatever species they are) but occasionally I suspect she gets bit between her toes. A little benedryl cream seems to help a lot.

Reply to
Ulysses

"Ulysses" wrote in news:h4uve1$tut$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

still too big to be fireants. Fireants are about 1/8" long.

sorry. but there ARE plenty of people who would do that,either not knowing or not caring about the contamination.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

Just figure out what they eat and make your bait out of that, about

12:1 or less. As other posters have said, not too much BA or you just kill the first few ants that eat it and the rest will stop eating that stuff.
Reply to
gfretwell

The fireants we had in Louisiana were much bigger than the ones we had in Florida.

Reply to
badgolferman

The fire ant sizes vary from about 1/16" to about 3/8" in each mound here in Texas that I have seen.

Freckles

Reply to
Freckles

Agree. Some people make baits using jam and BA. A local article by a state entomologist stated to use peanut butter with BA mixed at 10:1. We went on to say that if you see dead ants along their path, reduce the BA.

"Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth" (DE) is used as an insecticide.* Not the same DE for pools, though. Buy it a farm/feed supply store.

"Diatomite is also used as an insecticide, due to its physico-sorptive properties. The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of insects' exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate. Arthropods die as a result of the water pressure deficiency, based on Fick's law of diffusion. This also works against gastropods and is commonly employed in gardening to defeat slugs. However, since slugs inhabit humid environments, efficacy is very low. It is sometimes mixed with an attractant or other additives to increase its effectiveness. Medical-grade diatomite is sometimes used to de-worm both animals and humans. It is most commonly used in lieu of boric acid, and can be used to help control and eventually eliminate a cockroach infestation. This material has wide application for insect control in grain storage"

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Reply to
Oren

"Freckles" wrote in news:gIadnfquBfggvu7XnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

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says there's 280 species of fire ant,and that they range from 0.12" to

0.24",or 1/4" or smaller. 2mm to 6mm for the metric fans.

Here in Florida,I've only seen the small version.

(I guess this is more of that "Texas grows 'em bigger" baloney...) 8-)

more 'good' news....;

Recently there has been a large spike in the fire ant population of the southern United States[5]. Environmentalists have predicted that before April 2010 the fire ant population will have increased by nearly 40% in the United States.[6] The ants are believed to be coming from Mexico and contain a much more poisonous venom than other fire ants, thus causing many states to start emergency programs to destroy fire ant colonies before they spread.[7]

damn Mexicans.....even their ants are coming in illegally!

just what we need,"a much more poisonous venom",too!

Reply to
Jim Yanik

When I lived in Florida, we called them "piss" ants. "He bit the piss out of me" :-)

"A white pustule usually appears the next day at the site of the sting (Cohen 1992)."

Size range scale here:

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Reply to
Oren

________________________________________________

Didn't you say they were only 1/8" long?

As far as I've read they do not have any predators in the U.S. so they evidently live longer and are able to grow longer than the length stated in the various articles.

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I've have visited Florida and I've seen mounds of fire ants with individuals ranging for about 1/16" to about 3/8" there also.

Reply to
Freckles

Watch what happens when you have an Anteater!

Reply to
Oren

"Freckles" wrote in news:67mdnZzDM5cR3u7XnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Yes. the ones I see are the workers that defend the mound(~1/8"),but if you tear open the mound,you see bigger,winged ants.

That I don't believe.

Of course,none of use are actually measuring,but only "eyeballing" or estimating the size... Different people have widely varying accuracies WRT estimating size;just ask any woman about guys with "six inches"....! B-)

Reply to
Jim Yanik

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