fire ants

keh · Oct 18, 2015

OK, fellow fire ant victims, my neighbor came by to get some hay while I was poisoning fire ant mounds, and he said he poked a deep hole in the mound, poured some dish detergent down the hole followed by water, which washed off the wax on their bodies and they drowned. Anybody else in the fire ant zone heard of this?

KEH

Richard G. · Oct 18, 2015

Sounds like it would work. I was out of poison the other day and had some old Clorox on the shelf.
Diluted it with water about 50/50 and it worked well.
Richard in NW SC

keh · Oct 18, 2015

Thanks, Richard. I wonder if the Clorox makes chlorine gas in the ground?

KEH

Richard G. · Oct 18, 2015

Probably fills the mound and underground with chlorine gas.
Richard

john in la · Oct 18, 2015

I could see shoveling a fire ant mound into a bucket full of water and dish soap drowning the ants but for the life of me I can not see anyone adding enough water on flat ground to drown anything.

Now the dish soap and water may wash off their wax causing the dirt to stick to their bodies and in turn cutting them.
I could see that.

LAA · Oct 18, 2015

I have been using a propane torch and 5 gallon bottle for several years now, gets them all on top and gets the queen if you fire the mound for a couple of minutes and heat up the ground, grass grows right back and it is cheaper than poison.

wjytexas · Oct 19, 2015

I live near Austin TX. A few years ago the U of T ran an experiment with phorid flies. They are the natural predator of fire ants in Brazil. They lay their eggs on an ant and the larva digs into the ant's head and kills it. The ants that aren't killed become scared to come out and eat and the mounds die. It was very successful but when the drought around 2010 hit, the drought and the flies killed off so many ants the flies died too. Of course when the rains finally came, the fire ants came back and the flies didn't. So far they haven't re-established the flies.

Dean Olson · Oct 20, 2015

Yes, it works. I'll usually dig the mound out to form a bowl and use hot soapy water. My next project is to rig a 50 gallon propane water heater on a 3ph platform so I can really get after them.

I use the soapy water in the garden as I don't use any chemicals there.
I've never heard about it washing the wax off. I've read the soap acts as a surfactant so they can't float and it drowns them. Irregardless it works.

rbhuntn · Oct 20, 2015

When I lived in South Texas an old timer there taught me his trick.

He took a shovel and pail. Dug part of one mound up and placed in the bucket, Dug up part of another and placed on first. Then dumped bucket of first on second and let them fight each other to the death.

Kind of sadistic but it works.

fire ants

keh

Well-known Member

Richard G.

Well-known Member

keh

Well-known Member

Richard G.

Well-known Member

john in la

Well-known Member

LAA

Well-known Member

wjytexas

Well-known Member

Dean Olson

Well-known Member

rbhuntn

Member

Similar threads