"new" magic bullet for LFA?

[MarkP]

I have not had the opportunity to explore this yet but could a batterpowered caulk gun be modified somehow?

[The_Saints]

Terracore, some time has gone by. How were the long term results?

[terracore]

That record-breaking rain came and destroyed the experiment. The LFA must have thought our lanai and house was their life boat because during the 2 days of heavy rains the LFA were coming inside all over the place. We had to put Siesta down for a fast and sure knock out and like every other time we have used Siesta, the ants are gone now.

It's usually a few weeks at least after a Siesta treatment before we see LFA around the house again.

I didn't get enough data to be useful. I'll have to start over again. The only thing I really learned from this round is that the ants were attracted to the bait.

[tada]

Hot Shot ant bait motels use indexocarb and only cost$2.50 at Lowe's. Sometimes on sale at Long's.

Also I notice Wal-Mart stocks 2 brands of boric acid. 1 of them much cheaper and purer than the other one???

[terracore]

do the hot shot work on LFA? None of the commercial baits I've used will attract them. Even the ones labeled for attracting both sugar and protein feeders.

[tada]

I believe it works on LFA. Just based on the listed insecticide indexocarb. They had it at HD for $2.27. Lowe's had it for$2. Didn't see it at Long's.

[terracore]

I repeated the experiment on some infested palms and have deemed the experiment a failure. The cockroach gel does attract and poison the ants however I believe they are dying before they have a chance to share the poison because it knocks them back but doesn't knock them out.

I read the amazon reviews for the advion ant gel (http://amzn.to/2e9g0ji ) which I was originally reluctant to buy because it was advertised as a sweet bait, however some of the reviewers indicated that they used it successfully on LFA in Hawaii so I ordered some. When it gets here and I try it out I'll update with results.

I was at Pahoa feed recently and they have 2 pound jugs of Siesta for $50. Their old size was a 1.5 pound jug so if it looks like the price went up, while it did it's also more Siesta.

[terracore]

My first round of experiments with the advion ant gel was a success.

The LFA are attracted, but not wildly attracted to the bait like Siesta, and possibly for that reason it takes longer to work. I applied the gel on two areas, one on an LFA highway on our house under the eaves and another in an infested palm tree. Here are pics of both. Notice how I put the bait inside a syringe on the palm tree that 1) Keeps bees and other bugs off the bait 2) Keeps the rain off of it 3) Continually dispenses the poison as ants return.

http://e-z-caps.com/images/0LFA1.jpg
http://e-z-caps.com/images/0LFA2.jpg

Both areas are now free of LFA. They were both heavily infested and now barring the occasionally straggler there are no LFA. It took about 3 days to see a reduction in ants, about 5 days to see dramatic reduction, with "elimination" taking about a week. It has been a full week since then and still no ants.

I just initiated a repeat of the original syringe method on another heavily infested palm.

[Chunkster]

Today I used the new two-bucket mixing method for Provaunt described above and recommended by the BIISC. I used regular grocery store xanthan gum, and did ten quart size Zep spray bottles with no clogs. Spray bottle clean-up seemed a bit easier, too. It takes two people, mainly for the part where you slowly pour the bucket with the well-mixed oil, peanut butter, and xanthan gum into the bucket with the well-mixed water and Provaunt powder while mixing the whole time. Four hours later, there are few live ants left.

Oh, I came back to add that I used a one gallon drill end paint mixer in five gallon buckets. The smaller blades on that paint mixer seemed to work better than the five gallon ones.

[terracore]

Can you post the recipe?