12-23-2014, 12:19 PM
Under most conditions LFA only travel about 10 feet from their colony, a 20 foot round trip, (and considering their size of 1/16 an inch, that is like humans traveling to the moon and back. I totally made up that comparison because I don't want to take the time to do the calculation, but it gives one an impression of what I mean, thank you for your appreciation of my estimate, or better yet, please use advanced arithmetic to post an accurate comparison) so detecting them in a freshly dumped/mixed up colony situation of mulch might be dubious.
Here is the Hawaii Ant Lab document on LFA and mulch: http://www.littlefireants.com/fact%20she...ooklet.pdf
I recently spoke in person with somebody who deals with such matters and his advice was when you fetch dump mulch or get a mulch delivery, sprinkle fertilizer on top and immediately cover it with black plastic out of the shade. (I guess if your mulch got dumped in the shade you already have a problem) Sprinkle an Amdro barrier around the mulch pile, and watch to make sure the mulch pile doesn't catch fire. I didn't ask him any follow up questions.
Here is the Hawaii Ant Lab document on LFA and mulch: http://www.littlefireants.com/fact%20she...ooklet.pdf
I recently spoke in person with somebody who deals with such matters and his advice was when you fetch dump mulch or get a mulch delivery, sprinkle fertilizer on top and immediately cover it with black plastic out of the shade. (I guess if your mulch got dumped in the shade you already have a problem) Sprinkle an Amdro barrier around the mulch pile, and watch to make sure the mulch pile doesn't catch fire. I didn't ask him any follow up questions.