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+--- Thread: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) (/showthread.php?tid=10885)
RE: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) - bananahead - 10-21-2012
my 2 cents, they love peanuts and peanutbutter... if you drop a peanut where they are it will be full of them within an hour.
save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha
RE: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) - islandlvng - 10-22-2012
We use amdro and extinguish at our farm and house in HPP. I use chopsticks cut down to 4-6 inches and dip them in PB. Place them all over and check them every 20-30 minutes. Dept of Ag uses this method to find them.
Get the trail coming out and them feeding, that is the important part, then I use a tsp each of amdro and extinguish. I also will place this as close to where the trail starts as possible. It is how I have taken care of every outbreak I have come across. You don't need very much of either of these products. I hear often of people just sprinkling it around their property and it is a waste.
Both of these products I have watched be carried up into trees ONCE LURED OUT with PB. Ive seen nests in pots taken out within days. Amdro is quick. Extinguish is Insect Growth Regulator so slower. Hell of a combo though. Extinguish is fairly cheap. CPS sells for $11 a pound?
For problems up in trees you can also dip the chopstick in PB then in Amdro and Extinguish and place up in tree. Works well also. The key to taking out Fire Ants is to do repeat applications. One app can take out small nests, but several applications are needed usually for larger more spread out ones. Do it 1 week apart. I find them very active in the morning. Best time to feed them!
Fire Ants have many queens and many nests so if they have been out there for a while, chances are repeat applications are needed. Small amounts, dry weather, pb to lure them out, should do the trick. Good luck all.
RE: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) - hikatz - 10-22-2012
There is a new google group forum on Fire Ants.
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!forum/littlefireants
RE: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) - Carey - 10-23-2012
Man, I was amazed at the breadth of this problem, a poster on that forum from an Ecological Services group in Israel was interested in Tango in Hawaii!!!!
The Amdro "Ant Block"/ or "Perimeter" PLUS "Extinguish" is the same as using the Amdro "Firestrike" (or "Extinguish Plus") EXEMPT that the "Firestrike" product is labeled for use in grazing fields & the combo is not
Why?? you may ask - the combination is across two different manufacturing labels & the "Firestrike" is over one manufacturing label - not sure about the "Extinguish Plus" as I have yet to purchase it... & I do not have grazing animals...but for those that do...esp. if you are intending on selling them....
What you learn when moving here!!! I researched this when I found out how much that Tango product cost....well, actually how much you have to buy for a minimum purchase....2.5 gals is a huge amount, when I need 1-2 oz for tree treatment = decades of Tango per purchase (& knowing my luck, those buggers will become immune by then!!!!!)
Oh, 2 weeks into the "Firestrike" treatment & the trails appear to be less utilized, I would guess about 1/4 the population from before the treatment, but there still are a crowd of ants if cat food or PB sticks are placed by the trails....
RE: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) - allensylves - 10-23-2012
I just bought 1 pound ($13.20) of Extinguish Plus (very slow acting, but long term) and 8 oz ($23.20) of Maxforce Complete bait (fast acting) from Crop Production Services on Leilani. I plan to spread some Extinguish Plus first to get it started working when there is a large field force and then in a few days spread the Maxforce to knock the population down.
Allen
Allen
Finally in HPP
RE: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) - Kiana - 10-24-2012
Aloha!
I was just going to post a question about the teeniest, tiniest little brown ants that invade the kitchen of a home we are house sitting in HPP. Not sure if they are fire ants, or what? They are only seen in the kitchen when food is out and about. We have not felt any bites and don't really find them outside in the garden beds or trees. But, we don't live there and are just maintaining their vacation property. We've used Terro and they just run right over it. We do not have these type of ants in lower Puna, just small black ones that the Terro takes care of.
Are these perhaps fire ants? They are the smallest ant we've ever seen! Thanks for any input.
RE: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) - Carey - 10-24-2012
If I would have to guess, it sounds like LFA's, but it is best to get a positive ID - if you can get a few in a baggie & get them to the ag dept on Kilaeua & Lanikula, they can tell you for sure what you have in that kitchen....
RE: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) - Obie - 10-24-2012
We have those little ants too.
They are not fire ants,the fire ants are more of a red/orange color and they move very slowly and almost stumble around.
I have zillons of the fire ants! I must be building up an immunity,the bites just itch for an hour or so.If the bites are going to cause your pets to go blind,wouldn't the bites also cause the Coqui to go blind ??
Keep your pets inside and check their eyes !
Just like when the Coqui invasion started,my neighborhood was on the forefront of the Lfa invasion !!
Save your money and accept defeat!
RE: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) - terracore - 10-24-2012
"Save your money and accept defeat!"
Wise words. I have no lofty goals of eradication- just a LFA free zone around the food garden and the pets/livestock (and of course, the house). We pick fruit from trees with LFA and generally suffer just a few bites per week (no more than mosquitoes). While I was doing some reading/research on them one interesting reference I found was that they were deliberately distributed in South America to out-compete certain crop pests. Another interesting thing I found about them on wikipedia:
"... queens produce more queens through ameiotic parthenogenesis. Sterile workers usually are produced from eggs fertilized by males. In some of the eggs fertilized by males, however, the fertilization can cause the female genetic material to be ablated from the zygote. In this way, males pass on only their genes to become fertile male offspring. This is the first recognized example of an animal species where both females and males can reproduce clonally resulting in a complete separation of male and female gene pools.[8]
These ants get both the benefits of both asexual and sexual reproduction[9][8] - the daughters who can reproduce (the queens) have all of the mother's genes, while the sterile workers whose physical strength and disease resistance are important are produced sexually."
I think this pretty much guarantees their survival under almost any circumstance, as the colony has the benefits of both sexual reproduction and cloning at the same time.
RE: Your experiences killing LFA (little fire ants) - Obie - 10-24-2012
We have little traps around the perimeter of the house.Amdro in a plastic container with a few small holes so the ants can get in and the Amdro stays dry.The attractant of your choice.
We have about 30 coconut palms.I have no idea about how to eradicate them from there.