# Yard ant problem - not sure all are fire ants



## Frank4 (Nov 27, 2016)

They are red and smaller. Seems like some are real small and some a bit bigger. I also have black ants trying to get with Ferro drops. 

For the yard ants I tried Spectracide and Amdro - both for fire ants. I am in Florida. Spectracide I think is straight poison and Amdro is a yellow like bait poison. It seems like pretty average to not great results. Maybe they are not fire ants. I got frustrated and just started spryaing with Ortho bug spray. 

Any other suggestions? I was going to get talcum powder, borax and sugar and dust the mound. They get talc on them and they try to clean it off. Any brand of ant killer that members here like? Thanks.


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

Go stand near them & you will find out when they sting you! We had them on an almond orchard & the orchard workers used Ortho to good effect. They had come in the house & I was stung while making coffee in the morning & out at the garbage can. I think they are meat eaters.

*Fire Ants*
https://bohart.ucdavis.edu › note_19_fire_ants_print
PDF

"Native _Fire Ant_. The native _fire ant_, Solenopsis xyloni, is found throughout the southern states and in southern. California. Workers are brownish red, ..."

"Fire ants are *omnivorous*. Known to eat meats, greasy and sweet materials. Fire ants are omnivores, meaning they will feed on animal or vegetable sources of food. The fire ant worker's diet includes insects, earthworms, ticks, spiders, arthropod eggs, honeydew and other sweets." Orkin

I think the Ag workers used Ortho Home Defense but it looks like Ortho has come out with a specific fire ant treatment.



Amazon.com


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## stick\shift (Mar 23, 2015)

Borax is not generally approved, as it builds up in the soil with repeated use. If you can find the hills, boiling water is pretty effective poured into them. Keep in mind that these ants are all over so you're never going to be done.


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

stick\shift said:


> Borax is not generally approved, as it builds up in the soil with repeated use. If you can find the hills, boiling water is pretty effective poured into them. Keep in mind that these ants are all over so you're never going to be done.


The pesticide did work where I lived. They were all gone. Maybe not in the field acreage, but around the house, for sure.

@Frank4 -If there are other types of ants, also, you can identify what they eat to id them, compare body shapes and find the appropriate pesticide if needed.





__





ENY203/IG080: Ants


University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension outreach is a partnership between state, federal, and county governments to provide scientific knowledge and expertise to the public. The University of Florida (UF), together with Florida A&M University (FAMU)...




edis.ifas.ufl.edu


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Diatomaceous earth is another option.


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## Steve2444 (Sep 28, 2020)

I find that a gallon of properly mixed 
Bifen IT
or








Taurus SC Termiticide


Taurus SC Termiticide




www.domyown.com




Poured into the mound will wipe them out.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

Gotta _find _the mound though.


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## Steve2444 (Sep 28, 2020)

huesmann said:


> Gotta _find _the mound though.


If they are fire ants the mound will be easy to spot. Mound with no hole.
As too regular ants, if they aren't a bother I leave them alone, but if needed to get rid of them a granular Bifen spread over the yard will do. 








Bifen L/P Insecticide Granules


Bifen L/P Insecticide Granules




www.domyown.com


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

@Frank4 where are you located? That’s a crucial question. City /county and state enough.

Fire ants live in warm climates; if you’re in MI, MN or MT I’m pretty sure you don’t have fire ants.


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## Steve2444 (Sep 28, 2020)

DoomsDave said:


> @Frank4 where are you located? That’s a crucial question. City /county and state enough.
> 
> Fire ants live in warm climates; if you’re in MI, MN or MT I’m pretty sure you don’t have fire ants.


Florida


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Steve2444 said:


> Florida


Oops . . . . 

I was on my teensy print device.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

@Frank4 is the mound hard and concrete like? I see you're in Florida, which is fire ant territory.

Have you or anyone else been stung? Hope not, but . . . . 

Fire ants (if that's what you have) can be tough to get rid of. One thing that can help deal with them is natural enemies like "phorid flies" though they usually reduce the numbers rather than annihilate colonies.


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## Frank4 (Nov 27, 2016)

DoomsDave said:


> @Frank4 where are you located? That’s a crucial question. City /county and state enough.
> 
> Fire ants live in warm climates; if you’re in MI, MN or MT I’m pretty sure you don’t have fire ants.


Florida


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

DoomsDave said:


> One thing that can help deal with them is natural enemies like "phorid flies" though they usually reduce the numbers rather than annihilate colonies.


We had a thread a few years ago about the purposeful phorid fly release in Florida. If I remember, correctly, it may have had mixed results since they attack honey bees, also. I'll find a source.





__





USDA, Southern States to Release Fly Against Fire Ants : USDA ARS






www.ars.usda.gov





This would not 'fly' in California!

"Here we provide the first documentation that the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, previously known to parasitize bumble bees, also infects and eventually *kills honey bees* and may pose an emerging threat to North American apiculture.".Jan 3, 2012

*A New Threat to Honey Bees, the Parasitic Phorid Fly ... - PLOS*


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## Steve2444 (Sep 28, 2020)

Nik333 said:


> We had a thread a few years ago about the purposeful phorid fly release in Florida. If I remember, correctly, it may have had mixed results since they attack honey bees, also. I'll find a source.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


PUN alert


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Nik333 said:


> We had a thread a few years ago about the purposeful phorid fly release in Florida. If I remember, correctly, it may have had mixed results since they attack honey bees, also. I'll find a source.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Interesting! But it appears that the Phorid fly that attacks fire ants is a different species (different genus, too) from the ones listed in your link, which also does so in the ants' native habitat. Fire ants have lots of parasites and enemies, thank heaven.

I'll be the first to say that "Euro" honey bees are fussy PIA livestock. Oh yeah.

In any case, there aren't as many fire ants down south as I remember back in the late 1970s. In Texas they were everywhere. When I visited Florida in 2011, I found almost none.









Red imported fire ant - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

DoomsDave said:


> But the Phorid fly that attacks fire ants is a different species (different genus, too),


Different from what? Edit - I see you changed your post.

Btw, when we had the fire ant problem on the almond orchard, I contacted the County Ag dept who contacted another dept, maybe State, who came and inspected them to see if they were imported. They weren't. Agriculture is such a big & powerful part of the state, they don't want them to get a foothold. They were very laid back. Cute, too, but, that might not matter to you.😄


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Nik333 said:


> Different from what? Edit - I see you changed your post.
> 
> Btw, when we had the fire ant problem on the almond orchard, I contacted the County Ag dept who contacted another dept, maybe State, who came and inspected them to see if they were imported. They weren't. Agriculture is such a big & powerful part of the state, they don't want them to get a foothold.


There's a surprising number of native Fire Ants, some of which sting. But I've never encountered any as nasty as "RIFA." That'd make a nice expletive to scream when you're getting stung . . . . 

As noted in previous threads, we had a huge Red Imported Fire Ant Scare complete with Paranoid Hysteria for a while down here. I had and have lots of friends in the nursery trade, and fire ants were supposed to hitchhike in plant containers, which prompted the Ag people to require various bug killers to be mixed with the soil. The business pushed back. 

Fortunately, fire ants need a good bit of water in the soil to survive, so they didn't get a toehold here, except near peoples' homes, which, of course, annoyed people, who killed them. There's still Fire Ant patrols and reportage lines.

I could see the potential for a real disaster in a place like the Sacramento River valley, because that's much better Fire Ant habitat, at least in theory.


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

We could probably bore the ants to death. . . 🤣


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

So, @Frank4 

WRENCHING this back on track . . . 

I have assisted many in dealing with insects, and the first thing you have to accept is that you're not going to get rid of them. The average yard has like 20 - 50 ant nests, most too small to notice much. 

I think you already know that, but it bears saying.

That said, Red Imported Fire Ants are something you want to go to the trouble to get rid of, so it's important to find out if that's what you have. I've been stung by them, and it hurts. 

You might want to approach your county ag department as @de-nagorg is so fond of noting, and ask them. In particular, catch some ants and stick them in a bottle, and get pictures of their mound. 

As noted, here in California, they'll send a car with hysterics over to kill them, but they may be more blase over in Florida.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

DoomsDave said:


> So, @Frank4
> 
> WRENCHING this back on track . . .
> 
> ...


Thanks for catching the slack, in my response, Yes the County Ag department is your friend, as well as your employee.

Get their advice.

I used to use a product named Diazanon, to corral the Ants that are here, they are black and red, half n half. 

And voracious biters too. 

ED


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## Steve2444 (Sep 28, 2020)

Nuke'em from orbit... it's the only way to be sure.


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## gthomson (Nov 13, 2016)

I got bit up in a major way a year ago - black ants had a home/hill next to my raised bed that I was working on.

I tried a boiled tea with various things - lemon, peppermint, turmeric, vinegar, cinnamon, etc... - I forget what all I put into it, basically things that ants don't seem to like.
It didn't seem to work.

Then a cup of sugar, with 1/4 cup of Borax mixed in, and I just dumped it on the ant hill/mound.
I think that's what worked.
After that, I saw the worker ants all moving their eggs 'somewhere else'.
I'm not sure where they went, but I haven't seen another ant hill around for the past year.
So far.


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## Frank4 (Nov 27, 2016)

DoomsDave said:


> So, @Frank4
> 
> WRENCHING this back on track . . .
> 
> ...


 Ha ha.

Not sure I want that. I bought some Eco Logic at Lowes.


https://www.lowes.com/pd/EcoLogic-Granular-10-lb-Lawn-Insect-Control-10-Pack/1000132149


It has mint oil, geranium, peanut shells?? It smells nice. I know that most I spread it around an active pile and they did not like it. A $11.89 bag covers 20,000 sq ft and kills a lot of bugs. Ants, ticks, mosquitoes, aphids and many others. I guess is it is safe for run off into the canal too.

What is weird is have all sorts of ants including black ones that just mill around. I would almost rather not kill them because they see mostly harmless but they like the house. 

I will check on the ag extension. I also hit some of the piles with cheap boric acid. You used to be able to get it at the dollar store but it is as cheap as $1.50. It seems effective and they either die or go back underground. 

I agree they will always be there. I would get it spray monthly but the missus does not want the lawn sprayed because the dog. I know after a few hours it is safe.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Frank4 said:


> Ha ha.
> 
> Not sure I want that. I bought some Eco Logic at Lowes.
> 
> ...


It kills for a while.

As when the castle walls, bristling with spears, bows, and beards, repel the Huns - this time.

But they return. Again and again, etc, etc.

As you’re aware, good.

In the broader sense, insects control each other. Predator bugs eat others and that’s the best control, because you can spend the money you’d otherwise spend on bug killers on other, perhaps more fun things.

My yard is a jungle and the bugs manage themselves.

Leaving time for the &[email protected]&#%^$!! Rodent Army…..


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

DoomsDave said:


> It kills for a while.
> 
> As when the castle walls, bristling with spears, bows, and beards, repel the Huns - this time.
> 
> ...


Have you tried cats?


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Nik333 said:


> Have you tried cats?


Cats LOVE to eat rodents 
Coyotes LOVE to eat cats, and leave detached limbs tails and heads as evidence.
Hmmm. Balance that ecosystem! 

Anyone up for some coyote curry? Me neither.


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## Frank4 (Nov 27, 2016)

In Florida they should breed and release more dragonflies for mosquitoes. We get them during a west wind. Those dragonflies are relentless and amazing hunters.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Frank4 said:


> In Florida they should breed and release more dragonflies for mosquitoes. We get them during a west wind. Those dragonflies are relentless and amazing hunters.


The huge problem with dragon flies is that they’re diurnal while mosquitoes are nocturnal or like to fly at dusk.

Bats are better for mosquitoes, but they carry rabies. 

But dragon flies are great flying meat grinders for other flies, like screw worms, horseflies and those others that buzz all over and annoy people cattle and horses.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

DoomsDave said:


> Cats LOVE to eat rodents
> Coyotes LOVE to eat cats, and leave detached limbs tails and heads as evidence.
> Hmmm. Balance that ecosystem!
> 
> Anyone up for some coyote curry? Me neither.


In 1970, I met an old Shepard that had Coyote killing tools that worked quite well.

It was a little thing that he set on the ground, with some fresh meat as bait, when the Coyote grabbed the bait, a shotgun shell fired a Cyanide capsule right into the Coyote's mouth with the bait.

Probably illegal by now, and in California, even a BB gun is illegal.

Returning this back to Ant problem.
ED


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## gthomson (Nov 13, 2016)

Too funny - anteater for hire - here you go


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

gthomson said:


> Too funny - anteater for hire - here you go



Even in California, that would be considered an EXOTIC pet, and you probably need a license to own one.

And of course a hefty fee.


ED


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

gthomson said:


> Too funny - anteater for hire - here you go





de-nagorg said:


> Even in California, that would be considered an EXOTIC pet, and you probably need a license to own one.
> 
> And of course a hefty fee.
> 
> ...


Gotta say it

Sounds like an election, heaven help us.


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