Fire Ants!

[jgerling]

I have fire ants in my garden and need to know an organic way to get rid of them. Any ideas?

John Gerling :shock:

[Tricky Grama]

Go to the home page, click on 'library' on the upper left, under 'A' is the fire ant solution. BTDT, it works!

Patty

[kmbrandon]

I have tried using Equal (generic versions work too) on ant mounds after reading about the effects of aspartame in the weekly email a few weeks back. It really does seem to kill a mound overnight, plus it's virtually free. I pick up a couple packets everytime I go to a restaurant. :wink:

Kevin

[countryboymom]

I'm looking for some help sorting out the different fire ant remedies. My friend who got me started in organics recommended beneficial nematodes, so I did that first. I was afraid that I had let them die by not getting them watered in well during the first few days, but was amazed at the large mounds that I later found dead. I was treating almost an acre, so did more of a spot treatment and didn't get thorough coverage, so still have ant mounds developing. I have been using the garret juice and orange oil mound drench, which seems to work, but wonder if I am killing BN with the orange oil? Or maybe the presence of the ants in that area indicates that there aren't any BN there to kill? How do the spinosad products compare to the garrett juice and orange oil drench procedure? Or diotomaceous earth?
Also, maybe I should broadcast dry molasses? I haven't worried about fertilizing the grass, because it is such a large area and the grass seems to grow well enough on its own - especially during mowing season!
Thanks for any help with this.

[Dirt Doctor]

The new Soil Mender DE really is incredible. Give it a try.

[northwesterner]

I've poked through several pages of threads and don't find one that has answered this already.

I have a variety of ants around the house that are a problem. Sugar ants raiding the kitchen are about under control now, but I seem to have fire ants in an odd nook under a boxed out window. I am also seeing a lot of both fire and sugar ants around my veggie garden and they're on some of the plants.

My question is twofold: I'm trying to treat the ants (I'll try the instant grits mentioned on the program last week) but I also want to prevent problems in the vegetable garden--my squash always get attacked by the worms that get into the stems. I put two strips of tricogramma wasps on two sides of the house and those darned ants denuded the cards. I spotted the first card almost empty within an hour and moved the other away from where I thought ants were foraging. But the next day I found the outside contingent of the sugar ants finishing off the eggs on the card.

I'm going to have to figure a setup to keep ants from reaching the card on the stake (vaseline may figure in this) but I wonder--will those wasps hatch in the ant nest, or were they consumed by the ants already? Will the wasps get the final revenge?

Northwesterner