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If anyone wants Tango in small quantities, please contact me. 965-9787 Please call between 8am and 8pm
I bit the bullet and bought a bottle. It seems like the least toxic way to treat my property with all the food I grow.
I'm trying to make it available at a reasonable price.
I'm selling 8oz for $40 (enough to treat a 1/4 acre 4 times over 4-6 months) I'm including the Xanthan gum needed for the Gelbait recipe so you don't have to track that down. I'm selling 2oz of Tango (enough for a single treatment) for $15, but it really makes sense to buy enough to treat a few times. One application isn't supposed to be enough.
Or, I'll mix up the gelbait for you if you don't want to deal with that. I'm asking for $25 for a 40oz bottle which is supposed to treat a 1/4 acre lot. You're supposed to apply it within 24 hours though so it might be more covenient to mix it yourself.
Good luck!
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P.S. I'm in Seaview, you can pick it up there.
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Doesn't boric acid work? Just mix it 1:1 with sugar and water to make a paste or peanut butter. Then put it in a dish in an area they frequent.
Ive never used it non fire ants specifically but I've had success with several other types of ants.
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I know the LFA's are not the same fire ants in Texas, but I used to use "spinosad" fungus bait- which I had bought under the tradename, "greenlight". IT is a natural fungus which the ants carry back to their nest and it kills them within about a month. Has anyone tried this here?
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Spinosad is highly toxic to bees, please use with caution. I've had great luck with Talstar granules.
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A friend of mine showed me how he deals w/ LFA in their palms , lilikoi and trees. He places the granule Amdro bait in aluminum..... Folds it to keep the rain out and attaches it to the tree. It's a little more time consuming but maybe a safer way, especially w/ lilikoi or fruit trees.
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quote:
Originally posted by reni
A friend of mine showed me how he deals w/ LFA in their palms , lilikoi and trees. He places the granule Amdro bait in aluminum..... Folds it to keep the rain out and attaches it to the tree. It's a little more time consuming but maybe a safer way, especially w/ lilikoi or fruit trees.
I tried a similar technique, but unlike your friend I wasn't smart enough to use foil... I bought expensive weather proof bait stations. It does work, but the problem is that even protected from the rain, the high humidity ruins the amdro quickly. I would say it stays viable for a day, maybe two, then once it absorbs humidity either the poison quits working or the bait is no longer attractive to the ants. According to the ant lab, the viable timeframe for amdro outside the bottle in Hawaii is more like 4 hours.
I've resigned myself to have "LFA free zones" which include around the house, and the areas we want our pets to frequent. The LFA will come inside and you usually don't realize it until you get stung. A quick sprinkling of amdro around the outside of the house (under the eaves where the rain won't instantly ruin it) seems to eliminate them for the better part of a season. The problem with broadcast spreading amdro all over the property to kill the ground population is that our free range chickens would eat it since the carrier is corn grits. In order to kill the ants out in the field we need to 1) protect the amdro from moisture 2) protect the amdro from the chickens and 3) get the granules within 10 feet of the ants we want to kill. Amdro is an effective poison, but it's very difficult to use effectively in this environment. As far as I know the only natural predator of LFA is a species of phorid fly, and I don't know if there is any research on bringing them to the island. My guess is that there won't be any serious research into eradicating LFA from Hawaii until it spreads to the other islands.
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You're a wise man, terracore. Nothing in this state is considered a serious problem until it gets to Oahu. A lone coqui frog over there gets the National Guard called out. OK, I'm exaggerating, but there is a difference.
As for LFAs, they do love the Amdro, and I've managed to get my acre in HPP almost completely free of them for two to three months at a time. The key has been to catch a dry spell and get the bait out as soon as the dew, if any, has dried. I've been told they forage for "special" food most actively early and late in the day, so that's when I put out bait. On those rare occasions when we have low humidity, I've had great results. The rest of the time, it can take multiple applications.
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LFA revisited:
How do we eradicate, or, more realistically, create a LFA-free zone, while protecting our pets from ingesting?
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We have recently attended the Ant Lab's little seminar.
I then went down to the Co-Op where they're selling Tango in pint bottles for $50 ea, and picked up 2 pints.
2 tablespoons of Tango are used in each batch.
There are 32 tablespoons in a pint.
Therefore, a pint should make 16 batches.
The 2 pints should give well over 2 years of monthly applications.
At that rate, Tango is not all that expensive.
I keep the Andro bait stations around the house in the areas where the ants have been seen, and spray the Tango mix around the outside of the house and the lot every 4 weeks.
After two applications The LFAs are seen far and few between.
Although, I did pick up a few bites today working around the yard, not as many as normal, though.
In another 2-1/2weeks, I'll make the third application of tango.
I can see some improvement already.
I expect more improvement with more applications.
The monthly spraying of Tango will become a ritual, just to keep the little buggers at bay.
We've also begun to spray[EDIT]another insecticide aimed at centipedes[EDIT] in a few areas around the outside of the house to keep the centipedes out.
We keep finding 2" to 3" dead ones around the house, and a 4"er in the garage.
It does prove that the house is not a healthy place for them.
But, I do not want to find even dead ones in the house.
It also seems to be working.
It'll be nice if we can get the house completely and totally bug free.
It'll be even sweeter if I can work all day out in the yard and not get bit even once.
Dream on.
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Was a Democrat until gun control became a knee jerk, then a Republican until the crazies took over, back to being a nonpartisan again.
This time, I can no longer participate in the primary.
