Little Fire Ant Prevention and Protocol

[spencerw]

https://tropicalselfsufficiency.wordpres...-protocol/

check out my new blog entry!

[Iju]

I like your blog, great info. Thank you.

[bananahead]

Key on why its hard to get rid of Electric Ants w/o using Tango....


Reproduction
In Wasmannia auropunctata (electric ants)
1. queens produce more queens through parthenogenesis...
2. Sterile workers usually are produced from eggs fertilized by males...
3. In some of the eggs fertilized by males, however, the fertilization can cause the female genetic material to be ablated from the zygote. In this way, males pass on only their genes to become fertile male offspring.

This is the first/only recognized example of any animal species where both females and males can reproduce clonally resulting in a complete separation of male and female gene pools.

These ants get the benefits of both asexual and sexual reproduction - the daughters who can reproduce (the queens) have all of the mother's genes, while the sterile workers whose physical strength and disease resistance are important are produced sexually.

thus hundreds of satellite colonies with separate queens (under ea. rock, bucket, log, etc.)

Tango® is a concentrate pesticide that contains S-methoprene, which is an insect growth regulator (orIGR). The IGR group of chemicals work by preventing affected insect larvae from completing the pupationprocess but has no effect on adult worker ants. It also prevents or slows down egg production by the queen. Ant colonies baited with an IGR slowly die out over a period of months. One big advantage of methoprene is that it is one of the safest insecticides available today. For this reason, it is often used for insect control in food crops and even drinking water. Additionally, it is extremely effective as an ant bait when used correctly. The main disadvantage of this product is that it takes longer to control insect pests because only the larvae are affected, while the adults can live on. In today’s world we often expect quick results and for some people waiting up to 3 months to get rid of an ant problem seems too long. But the wait is worth it! ...


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save our indigenous and endemic Hawaiian Plants... learn about them, grow them, and plant them on your property, ....instead of all that invasive non-native garbage I see in most yards... aloha

[kalianna]

I'll second that, Bananahead. We could kill them with poison but they came back quickly. With Tango treatment it took 3 months to see a difference. After the 4th month they were gone. We now do the tango treatment once every two months. Zero ants. Costs about $25 per application. Or you can pay someone a lot of money to spread poison around your yard every month forever.

[terracore]

We didn't get any LFA relief until we abandoned trying to use HAL Tango recipe and delivery.

The key is using BAITING poison, not contact poison, using HAL recipes.

You could use a Tango bait, and hope for relief through birth control, or you could use a poison bait and skip the "birth control" phase and just kill all of them.

There is little reason to deliver birth control to dead ants via Tango.

Look at the HAL web site. Last time I looked, they NEVER tried to eradicate LFA on neighbor islands through Tango. They used Provaunt. Tango was an afterthought.

[randomq]

FYI we've had some black ants killing off the little fire ants on our property. I don't like seeing ants at all, but at least these ones don't bite or sting! I sometimes see a line headed all the way up my exterior walls to the rafters; not sure what they like about my roof.

[terracore]

I wonder how they kill the LFA? We did have black ants move into the areas where the LFA were eradicated. I'm glad to see them, but don't have any hope they can hold their own against LFA.

[spencerw]

nice info thanks for sharing! i didnt know that about their reproduction

[ElysianWort]

I think seeing other ants after ridding fire-ants is usually a very positive thing. They fill in that niche and even help to keep the fire-ants away.

I sometimes see a line headed all the way up my exterior walls to the rafters; not sure what they like about my roof.

Not exactly sure either but it is a possibility you have termites. Ants and termites can be enemies as ants like to eat termite larvae.