fire ant treatment costs

[MarkD]

Mahalos, Eric.

[Midnight Rambler]

I alternate between Tango and Provaunt. The ingredient in Tango is somewhat repellent to ants so the Provaunt mixture is a lot more attractive, but it's more toxic so you can't use it directly on fruit trees.

Amdro and other granular baits (I usually use Siesta, which is less toxic) only take care of the ants on the ground; the ones living in trees will still be there. I've found they're really hard to get out of trees with deep, whorled leaves like palms and hala, because they stay down inside and feed on honeydew from scales and mealybugs instead of coming out for the bait.

[Chunkster]

Midnight Rambler said: " . . . they stay down inside and feed on honeydew from scales and mealybugs instead of coming out for the bait."

Perhaps, but they have no problem coming out to bite me under my coconut and hala trees.

[ericlp]

Ok, I'll repeat what I said in another post. We had LFA coming into the house. When they start infesting the home it's bad...

Like others.... Our neighborhood sucks, no one treating them, so, you just had to deal with ants coming from all directions.

1) I live on Post n' Pier.
2) I have a small lot .3 acre
3) I don't really care about treating the entire yard.

Just want them GONE from inside the house and about 100' all the way around the perimeter. Could care less about the rest of the yard.

I've been doing this for about 2~3 years now and very successful. It only costs about 4 bucks a bag or 8 bucks a year to treat them. It's basically "FIRE ANT BLOCK" comes in 3.5 lbs bags and I use a bag every six months. Like other have said, 'try' to do it in the none rainy months... But I also throw some of the product under the house so it always stays dry, but most of it just goes around the perimeter of the edge of the outside blocks.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Spectracide-.../206498794

[ericlp]

quote:

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Originally posted by Chunkster

Midnight Rambler said: " . . . they stay down inside and feed on honeydew from scales and mealybugs instead of coming out for the bait."

Perhaps, but they have no problem coming out to bite me under my coconut and hala trees.

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The problem is, these ants can't "CLING" they fall off at the slightest breeze or tap... So, try not to work, sit, sleep under your trees when it's breezy! They will not just fall off and bite you, but reinfect the entire area again.

That's why I don't like bait, it doesn't work with trees and bait goes stale pretty fast 2-3 days. Plus as others have said, the ants can get use to a "type" of flavor and avoid it. Where ant block just keeps on killing the ones that do make it to the ground. Won't kill the nest, but at least it will kill and keep killing in the perimeter zone a lot longer than bait will.

[Eric1600]

FYI for barriers like ericip's the HAL recommends a 3 to 6 foot wide barrier to keep them out.

Also on bait products you can make small bait stations with some small PVC with end caps and a T. Drill a few small holes in the underside of the vertical sections, place the bait and caps on, then use the horizontal part of the T to stake it someone close to the ground. This keeps the water out and the ants will find it and take pieces out. It also reduces how much you loose by just spreading it around randomly. I know a few people that only use that method plus occasional tango. We also spread it around from time to time too, but the bait stations take very little of the poison and it lasts after the rains.

[ElysianWort]

Is siesta still available? I thought small containers weren't available anymore.
Also Eric I've made the bait stations and put amdro and other baits in it. Problem is: given a couple of rainy days, the humidity gets into the bait anyway, even if it's covered. Then a day or two later with sunshine and they are covered in mold and rendered useless.

[Eric1600]

I've only bought the big ones. I got several coupons ($15 off) through the state for attending the ant lab training and they applied to the larger containers.