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Hello, my name is Cal and I am new to this forum. Hopefully I will be building in HPP in the next few years. Anyway, yesterday's Hawaii Tribune-Herald had an alarming article on fire ants.
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/arti...ocal01.txt
"They're nearly impossible to eradicate and have been suspected in the blinding of pets and the death of birds." ..." Reached by phone, Rauch added that in Hawaiian Paradise Park, "It's all over the place ... "I think everybody needs to know about it."
In your personal experience, how bad is the problem, and how do most people cope with them. Maholo for your answers. - Cal
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Aloha Cal, my husband has been working on the Big Island and living in our home in Hawaiian Shores Rec. since Nov. 1st. Just this week he told me that while working in our yard there he was bitten by some little red ants. He said the bites caused red welts and were really painful for awhile. So - - when I read the article in the paper (I read it on-line every morning)I though ah-ha! It sure sounds like the ones he encountered to me. He did spray after he was bitten, but it sounds like they are hard to get rid of. Uh-oh . . .
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Hello,
This pest is a very serious matter. Yes, they are extremely difficult to erradicate. The link below will take you to the dept. of ag pdf on them. The treatment recommended, Amdro, takes a great deal of effort to use. The bait traps are supposed to be placed every 20'. Traps are required to keep the Amdro dry, as it immediately becomes ineffective when dampened. If you drop by the ag dept. in Hilo, they will give you handouts and instructions.
http://www.hawaii.gov/hdoa/pi/ppc/test-a...ireant.pdf
One of the key things to be aware of is other commonly-found ants disappear from your property. LFA's are extremely territorial and will destroy other ants.
Definitely a serious threat!
Jane Adams
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Thanks janeadams. I passed on the link to my husband - hopefully he will be able to work on the problem.
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We too have fire ants down here - I think we got the full super colony. When any one works in the yard, we have them put oil on their skin first - we used kukui nut oil first, but it seems that any oil works - used crisco the other day when we were out of mac nut and kukui both, bath oil works fine too. The oil keeps the ants from biting - why I dont know but we did find it works.
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Cal,
We were familiar with fire ants before we moved here, and Glorias husbands experience is ours regarding the bites/red welts/ pain that goes away. Sort of like a bee or yellow jacket sting.
There were numerous fire ant products available on the mainland, but I am honestly not sure what products we have here.
I have never heard of the pet blindness nor the bird deaths.... Anyway, you cope the same way you would with centipedes ,snakes or yellow jackets - as you have the issue you deal with it
Greg H.
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As I recall there was another thread about fire ants, on Punaweb, a while back.
Our State is inundated with them. And yes they do kill ground bird chicks and many other small animals, usually the species that can't get up off the ground fast enough, after birth, and/or fend for themselves. They're vicious lil buggers that thrive in the warm climate for sure. I really hate to hear that they are there.
If your neighbor treats them they will move to your lot. It's not uncommon for my neighbor to come by and let me know if he's going to treat for them in as much as I will know they are headed our way. They're really hard to kill off. But there are some things that they use on the big ranches that seem to work.
Amdro and other over the counter products work "a little bit". There are only a few concoctions that will eradicate these lil devils.
But since I have been told here, a few times, once by the moderator of this forum, that you could care less about how things are done in (my state here) then I'm sure that my input would not be well received. That added to the fact that my, most simple of, questions goes ignored here, makes me realize that my post are not very relevant to this forum.
The up side is that the fire ants will probably eat those lil frogs everybody whines about. (dave has the flue today)
Blessings,
dave
"Sometimes your the bug and sometimes your the windshield"
Blessings,
dave
"It doesn't mean that much to me.. to mean that much to you." Neil Young
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Thanks to all for your responses. Part of the joy of living in Hawaii is working outside and gardening. Some of my relatives live in rural eastern Texas. They are very careful where they walk on their property because of the full sized fire ants. In Hawaii, LFAs could take the joy out of some of those activities, but as Genxor says, "you deal with it..." Kapohocat, thanks for the tip about using oils to take the "bite" out of the ants.
The scary thing is that the newspaper article stated that Tommy Thompson, an entomology research associate for the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources said regarding LFAs: "When I'm done in mid-December, nobody's going to be working on this at all."
Hopefully, our govt reps will lobby for continued funding for his project.
Aloha - Cal
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Welcome, Cal.
What part of HPP will you be moving to?
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I have a mauka lot in escrow at 6th and Kaloli on the dead end street side. I hope to close in a few days. I wish that I bought in 2003...
My great-grand father, grand- father, father, were born on Kauai. My mom was born in Honolulu. My parents moved from Oahu to California because jobs were scarce in the islands. I spent many summers growing up on Oahu (eating poi and lau lau) and have always felt a connection with the aina. The east side of the big island is how Oahu use to be before the growth. It feels like home, even with those pesky little fire ants...
Anyway, I hope build, visit, and eventually retire in Puna.
Regards - Cal
