Little Fire Ant Treatment

[kalakoa]

For the bites, I've heard of both "WD40" and "ammonia" (not at the same time).

Have not tried either.

[mmbvd7]

I found this website. There is a workshop coming up. http://littlefireants.com/
They also had a recipe to help decrease the LFA population, but is rather slow working http://littlefireants.com/LFA%20Fact%20Sheet%205.6.pdf

This was another interesting site:
http://www.extension.org/pages/9008/fire...CWig_ldXkU

For stings: http://www.wikihow.com/Treat-a-Fire-Ant-Sting (one on the bottom of the list reminded me of that movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding! LOL!)



Best wishes

[steve1]

Little fireants can both bite and sting, and the effects are different because of differing chemical compositions. From what I understand, most insect stings contain formic acid so it makes sense to neutralize and acid with a base like a water-baking soda paste or ammonia.
But if I recall correctly the little fire ant sting is transferred in a basic solution, so it seems an acid like vinegar might help neutralize it.
Personally, when I get bitten or stung I turn off the weedeater and go take a hot shower to kill and wash off any of the little buggers around my collar or in my hair.
Some people like to use liquid (or cream) benadryl on the sting or bite to help neutralize the histamines, because both bites and stings probably contain antagonistic proteins, and it would probably stand to reason that meat tenderizer would probably help because it denatures proteins.

UH Hilo has a pharmacology department and I think it would be great if a student of professor ran a research project on finding a very specific and targeted treatment for little fireant bites and stings. It could provide an opportunity for a product with unlimited growth potential, particularly after they take over Oahu and Maui.

[Mindful]

This topic has been covered quite extensively on here. The treatment is well known, very cheap and quite simple to do yourself. For about $80 you can have a couple years worth of treatment.

Buy the $60 bottle of Tango anywhere...read the county LFA website on how to mix it with corn oil, peanut butter, Xanthum gum (sp?) gum and water. It's not complicated and very easy to mix yourself. Get a bottle sprayer and spray the acre or 2 once a month for about 4 months. It is not an insecticide (not harmful to pets), it makes the queen infertile and takes time. Over a couple treatments, you will not have a fire ant on your property for a season or two. Spray every 2 months forever and you will never see one again.

Total cost = $80 for a year or two and you control the process.

[kalakoa]

read the county LFA website on how to mix it

Gathering all the pieces was a bit of shopping...

Restaurant supply place on Bayfront has the small stainless wire whisk that will fit a regular drill chuck without modification. They were in a bucket near the front when I got mine.

Zep sprayer and small plastic mixing bucket: Home Depot.

Xanthan gum: health food store.

Peanut butter and corn oil: grocery store (or Walmart).

[terracore]

quote:

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UH Hilo has a pharmacology department and I think it would be great if a student of professor ran a research project on finding a very specific and targeted treatment for little fireant bites and stings. It could provide an opportunity for a product with unlimited growth potential, particularly after they take over Oahu and Maui.

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Instead of treating the symptom they need to treat the problem. Yes you can buy tango, xantham gum, sprayers, whisks, etc and wait months for improvement. WTF can't we go to the store and buy an inexpensive, ready-to-use product made specifically for little fire ants, like we can for almost any other type of horrible creature? It's because nobody has spent the money required to get EPA, FDA, and whatever labeling is required. Maybe now that the ants are on Oahu Monsanto will come in to save the day!

[kalakoa]

can't we go to the store and buy an inexpensive, ready-to-use product made specifically for little fire ants

Those products exist -- they simply aren't very effective in the rainforest.

If climate change creates rainforest in 5-10 more mainland states, we'll start getting better off-the-shelf solutions.

It's all about market share... and profit margin... for someone else...

[Mindful]

It's actually a simple process. You don't need a drill with a whisk attachment. I use a small bucket. Pour in the water, Tango, add some Xanthum gun and whisk by hand. Add the rest of the Xanthum gum, whisk again. Add the peanut butter and oil. Whisk again. It takes 5 minutes at most to get a thick-ish substance.

Pour in the spray bottle and walk the yard. The whole process is 1/2 hour. Once every month at first then every 6-8 weeks. That's not much to be free of LFAs.

[TomK]

Got bitten tonight on the stomach and tried the vinegar treatment. All I had was malt vinegar but it definitely helped, so thanks so much for that suggestion! I still smell like a British chippy but although the pain, itch and irritation didn't go away entirely it was much more bearable than in the past. Thank you again!

[ElysianWort]

Hey there, can anyone tell me if they're using the tango recipe with pets in their yard? Mindful just posted the mix with Tango and xantham gum and peanut butter. Is the trick to keep it out of the reach of dogs and only spray up in the trees? I'm pretty sure if I mad a mixture like that and sprayed it around the yard, I'd see my dogs licking it off the leaves.