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The red imported ants in the Southeastern United States are very different in their habits and control than the tree dwelling LFAs. But they both are really bad to have.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
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Kelena, try our death juice. We have had some success and it would suit your compost pile. (It was named death juice as we had 20-somethings and we put the mixture in an old liquor bottle with "NO ALCOHOL - DO NOT DRINK" on the front of it).
Take whole garlic cloves - skin and all and blend in blender with the hottest peppers you can find (those ghost chilies would be wildly appropriate in this mixture... many of them). We added some peppermint soap. Just blend the heck out of it. add 1/2 cup of molasses, and then fill with water to top of blender. Let it sit a day or two so all the water has all the garlicky, firey goodness (badness?).
We filtered it so we could use it as a spray on our plants but in your case, you could pour the whole mixture (seeds/skins and all) as evenly as you could over the compost.
BEWARE: Wear a mask and gloves when you make this. The fumes alone will make you choke. The ants are attracted to the molasses although your compost pile seems pretty attractive to them.
Capsaicin is an irritant to the ants as well as to us humans. This is what pepper plants use to ward off insects.
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Kapohocat,
Mahalo nui! I am going to give that a try. It sounds doable and less toxic for the compost. I hate to get rid of the compost. I eat a lot of bananas and peel a lot of sweet potatoes!
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Kelena, are you SURE they're fire ants? You usually dont' see thousands of them like that. Were they moving excrutiatingly slow or just "regular" ant speed? The super-slow ones are the LFAs. They're also really slender. Sometimes you can't even tell they're there. Two got me last week while weeding, the buggers. I red-up like crazy and itch for 3 days. I have seen other little red ants all over plant roots I've brought home, but those guys are harmless.
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Kelena,
I sent you an email by way of PunaWeb, post if you didn't get it.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
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Have you tried cornmeal? I have heard people using this and working. I They carry it back to the hill, they eat and starve. Like rice is to birds.
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If anyone is interested in controlling Little Fire Ants, I am a specialist on the subject. I have spent the last 2 years doing research on controlling these nasty pests. I am involved in the tentative eradication of L.F.A.on Maui and have been involved in developing new and very effective baits and bait delivery systems. Using granular baits alone(like Amdro) will not sufficiently control L.F.A.
L.F.A unlike many other fire ants make their homes in trees.This is what makes them so hard to control. Currently there is no effective, commercially available poison that will control L.F.A colonies above ground. This means the tree dwelling L.F.A. will just re-infest the ground quickly and you have accomplished very little. However there is a solution. An attractive gel or paste bait that has similar active ingredients as the granular bait and a delivery system that will disperse it evenly in the trees etc.
Large amounts of time and money have been spent developing such a solution, which I have access to. With the proper delivery system the gel bait can treat the above ground colonies safely and with great success. If you are interested in properly controlling these nasty ants whether at home or on a commercial scale, please contact me. I have references and data to support my claims.
Thank you,
Invasive ant specialist
Brent Sheehan
Little Fire Ant Specialist
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For the infested compost or anyone on here that wants to have your ants positively identified take a sample of the ants (try to keep them somewhat intact). Freeze them overnight (make sure they are dead)and send them or deliver them to Hawaii Ant Lab located in the entomology office at the dept. of Ag. next to the arboretum. The address is 16 E. Lanikaula
st. Hilo Hi. 96720. There are quite a few look-a-likes including ones that sting. A good microscope and being familiar with L.F.A. is the only sure way to know. If the ant is as large as a penny is thick, more orange than red, really slow moving, hangs out in trees and stings like hell then you very well might have LFA. It is amazing how many places are now infested since they were first discovered in 1999. If you just realized you brought some home from an infected plant, waste no time. I would use talstar as a contact and Amdro as a bait. Also remove or burn infected plant. Good Luck
Little Fire Ant Specialist
Brent Sheehan
Little Fire Ant Specialist
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Mahalo, FireAnteater! Good stuff! I actually have been very successful. I tried a combination of the suggestions above. You make an excellent point about them being tree dwelling. I now realize that the red ants I have seen are probably NOT fire ants. They move very, very fast and I have also seen black ants around. I have just started using Talstar (available at Garden Exchange -- kinda pricey). I think I am officially heading into the territory of overdoing it. But when it is feasible, I am going to start removing trees, other than ones that produce food.
Keep up the good work!
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quote:
Originally posted by FireAnteater.... An attractive gel or paste bait that has similar active ingredients as the granular bait and a delivery system that will disperse it evenly in the trees etc....
Ah, maybe the molasses acts like a gel/paste...
Keep giving us info and we'll bring our ants in - I told someone yesterday - I would gladly keep coqui's if I could get rid of the ants....
