Fire Ants. How I solved my problem.

[ericlp]

I should say a few things first.

I only solved my problem for getting rid of ants on my deck and inside of the house.

My house is not on concrete slab. It is on Post and peer about 5' off the ground.

I think the HUGE key to this working is putting it down on a VERY DRY day (hard to do) in puna, but also, I have 3' over hangs, so that helps.

What I do, is spread it around the outside peer blocks (perimeter of the home), I make a nice .5" high by about 2-3 inch wide mound of ant poison set back about 2' in between each peer block (that way if it does rain) it won't ruin the ant poison behind the peers, then in front of the peer 12" blocks, I run the ant poison straight down in front of the edge. So, even if it does rain on a breezy day the ant poison isn't getting soaked, at least the block behind the peers will be nice and dry and should keep killing for 2 or so months.

Anyway, I do this once every 3-4 months...

Two Bags cost less than 10 bucks (2 bags do go around the perimeter of my entire house). My house isn't very big, so you might have to buy more.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Spectracide-3.../206498794

Anyway... This has worked out fantastic for us. Yes, we still have ants in the yard... BUT NOT ONE in the house or the deck... To me, it's worth it's weight in gold, before this, I was thinking of buying expensive treatments and even hiring someone to come out and treat the place.

Just wanted to tell everyone what worked for me, and wow, you couldn't ask for a cheaper price!

[leilanidude]

Call a company like KFA Land Maintenance office: 965-0209. They do the whole acre here for $78 (or maybe its $68?)
No longer ants anywhere on the property and since the neighbors have all been doing it too, they don't have them either.

[ericlp]

Nice, thanks, but my solution has been working. Maybe I could stretch it out to twice a year.

[mermaid53]

Another option: At the last HPP board mtg, it was reported by the NW Fire Ant workshop chair that Big Island Invasive Species 962-2200 will come and treat your street for free if you get 6 or more residents on the list.

We've been paying $95 a treatment for 1/2 acre. leilanidude, thx for the info..we may check out that source. We like getting the entire property treated otherwise it's difficult to work in the yard w/out getting bit...we also want to protect our cat. We've found that having the property treated stops the fire ants from coming into the house. As part of the treatment, our guy provides us w/a few indoor baits which solves the indoor problem right away.