cinder question

[HADave]

I wonder if we should be starting a new topic here ??


I'd support the boiling water treatment, Lucy suggested, as this is what we use every spring, although not for fire ants, but it does keep a variety of other home invading ants at bay. Cinnamon as well might keep them contained to a specific area as, and again not sure about fire ants but all other will not cross a line of cinnamon.

Here is some general info to share

38. Can you describe the life cycle of fire ants?

Here is a thumbnail outline:

1. egg laid by queen 2. larva hatches and grows through 4 larval developmental stages or instars between which molts of larval skin occur 3. at 4th molt a pupa is produced 4. pupa hatched into adult ant.

There are two basic types of eggs.

1. unfertilized eggs — become males with wings whose only function is to mate with queens
2. fertilized eggs — become females which are either
a. winged virgin queens or
b. various castes of sterile workers.
How the colony feeds and cares for female larvae determines their caste; i.e., whether they behave as workers (all are sterile females) or queens. Male ants develop from unfertilized eggs and therefore possess only one set of chromosomes; i.e. they are haploid. Thus male ants have no father (but they have a grandfather). Females develop from fertilized eggs and are typical diploids. This type of life cycle occurs in other so-called eusocial insects including wasps, bees, and ants and is called "haplo-diploidy." Eusocial insects possess sterile castes that help queens by raising other siblings. Why some individuals give up the option to reproduce has been an interesting evolutionary dilemma since the time of Darwin but the work of people like the late W.D. Hamilton has largely solved the problem.

39. How do fire ants spread?

Fire ants reproduce opportunistically when conditions are wet and warm. They are found in all types of soil, but they do better in open pastures and sunny, grassy places than in thick shaded woods. Grassy medians of freeway and mowed pipeline and powerline rights of ways provide prime "freeways" for the ants too.

Polygyne colonies (those with multiple queens/mound) can reproduce by budding off new colonies and spread by walking a few meters per year. Colony establishment by winged queens can occur miles beyond source populations. This mode of spread may be promoted by prevailing winds and is the only way that monogyne or single queen colonies reproduce. Judging from the spread across Texas, natural dispersal was on the order of 10-20 miles/year. Of course transport in nursery products spread the ants beyond the boundary of natural dispersal. Though fire ants may arrive in the NE U.S. and Canada via nursery products, nests in RVs, cars, vans, etc., they are not likely to become a problem because of the cold conditions in fall spring and winter.

40. What can I use to kill fire ants indoors? I don't want to expose my family and pets to dangerous chemicals.

If you can avoid pets and kids you could consider making these same baits available in the house as well. Don't bradcast there but put baits in corners under, appliances and in closets. Indoors, I've also used boric acid (15% by volume) in peanut butter placed in bottle lids where ants have trails. Boric acid works in similar fashion, killing slowly after distribution among colony members (it also kills cockroaches when mixed with cornmeal and sugar). It will take about 2 weeks to completely control them, but is very effective. Treating the inside alone will never work since ants killed there are quickly replaced by a large population outdoors.

41. Why not kill all the ants in my yard just to be sure I kill the fire ants?

Other ants compete for food with fire ants and help keep them under control. If you kill all ants in your yard, you create an "ant vacuum" and after the next rain, it will be fire ant queens that land in your "safe" yard to begin new mounds unopposed by any other ants. Fire ants are better at colonizing and dominating newly disturbed habitat than the average ant species.

If native ants are not harming you but simply sharing their habitat with you, I would suggest leaving them alone. Often when one removes a native element of the ecosystem, something much worse fills the void. In Texas, our worst fire ant problems are in areas where people blasted the native system with pesticides and made invasion by introduced pests more likely.

Aloha HADave

[Lucy]

Our method that we have used most of the time in S. Tx. is to use the Amdro and put it on a mound when the ants are present. Not disturbing the mound to get it active in any way ahead of time. But if you see ants or they climb your leg, then just apply it to the area that they are in. They carry the poison back to their nest. I used the boiling water for awhile, but you cannot use it by plants roots as it kills everything including my lawn. But the ants really require an aggressive approach to get the buggars out of your yard, hard to do with the boiling water, since once they establish everywhere it is really hard to get them out. plus I got tired of rounding up everyone and pets to not scald them and being creful to carry it and not burn me. It is too bad when Hawaii first found out that they were there, did not take a real aggressive approach to that area, since they could have been contained then. Maybe that is what they were trying to do with the reporting. But they should have explained to folks this in the media or print news so that people would comply and report and that they could really work on the situation immediately. All they had to do would be to contact another state where they are to know how bad they get. I think that they and roaches would have survived the great flood! They cling to anything after floating around in the swirling raging waters we get when we sometimes get these 20 inch deluges and happily float along until they come by a tree and walk off and nest again.

Brian, there is big money to be made in pesticides for the companies that carry that stuff, because it doesn't go far and costs alot, so the garden shops there will start carrying it just like they do here. But there really are lots of products that kill them, just some better than others. Amdro seems to be the most cost effective and where you don't broadcast it, seems the most effective and will eventually work if you are diligent enough.
What we do to keep those other small ants from invading the house or the fire ants, is spread about twice a year a product called Sevin powder just right next to our concrete foundation and none seem to pass into the house. also we had some in the house for a few years coming in by the sinks and those have all gone away. Now for at least five years we have had none and we only applied the Sevin a couple times to the foundation that one year. It didn't harm any Geckos that I am aware of and we have the Anole false chameleons all over too and I love them both. I had an Anole when I was a kid as a pet for many years. So I actually brought some home here when we had our garden established from other places where we visited who had plenty. Also once I drove off from the house and one must have been down in the vent by my windshield wipers and got out when I was driving. I pulled over at Bill Miller's fast food and left off my chameleon rider when I could get off the road. In digging around the house I find their eggs too and leave them as best that I can exactly how they were. I have always wanted to see the kids hatch out though. That would be neat.
There have been lots of articles written about them, so I am sure if you want to learn more it is on the net and you could find out more on google.

Brian said "but I wonder if that Over'n Out stuff sounds like the micro-encapsulated stuff I've used for fleas here in Washington State." I would think that it most likely is the same. Did you look at both of the ingredients? I hate putting down chemicals for fleas and where my dogs go in my back yard, I use bark dust and don't have a problem with Fleas for 15 years now and I know that the neighbors just in back of us had a terrible time with them, I saw them jumping up at the dogs from the ground in the 1000's. My dogs live in the house and get regular baths, but I never use flea soaps but now use frontline plus when needed on them. I think I will switch to the spray though. Mostly they get fleas from others who don't keep the fleas off of their dogs and they board with us.
"My thought is that, since it doesn't discriminate, it'd kill anything that walks on it, including geckos." I would ask the manufacturer that before ordering to use that way.
The weird thing is I think I have become about immune to their stings it seems like they don't bother me much anymore, having gotten enough of them in the past on my feet. I have a few scars from the initial scratching that I did with them, but when I learned to resist the itch, just rub the buggars off and them wash the spot and put on the Benedryl, the itch stopped enough that I could manage it. Then I did not get the scarring. I used to take oral Benedryo to help me decongest and sleep at night, and that alone would help with the itch. You are not supposed to use oral and topical at the same time either.

HADave, you sound like my old college roommate Barry who was an entemologist. He could bake a fine bread and cook really great too! Surprised me in many ways, quite different than my brother was. I still laugh when I think of him occasionally. I think he is still out in Oregon. I'll try the boric acid with cormeal and sugar. See if that works for bugs too. I use the BA in an ear cleaning solution for my dogs, works great. I don't do anything on purpose to the native ants, other than the ones that get into the house. I also lock up the dog foods in a sealable bin, so they can't get into those. Imagine not seeing those buggars on the food and the dog starts eating the pellets and biting their insides. It happens, same for the cats. The thing with the fire ants is when they get mad and start biting, they are curled up tightly in a small round ball. You would not know it was an ant always, it is just hanging on and biting for all its worth, and they let off a scent to tell the others they are in trouble so they come on the chase too.
We have weep holes in our brick walls abour every two feet and the bugs and even mice will get into them and so we do have to check them and make sure the fire ants don't tunnel up into them when it rains, nor the sub-T termites.

Our one bold friend who came over to visit once, sat with us while we were pulling some weeds in the garden, we told him to just leave this one morning glory there since there were fire ants under it, he said they would not hurt him. No, not some ants. We told him many times and still he didn't listen, should have seen him complaining loudly when they did come after him.
He's a Californian and a bit self absorbed or takes himself a bit too seriously.
Lucy

Having another Great day in Paradise, Wherever that Maybe!
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