'Crazy' ants driving out fire ants in southeast

Big Chief

I saw some in Texas, they just don't go marching by one by one like a Roman Legion, very erratic movements like they don't have a purpose, but I reckon they do.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/20/crazy-ants-driving-out-fire-ants/?intcmp=features

Six-Gun

That really doesn't sound like a fun alternative to the fire ant. These invasive critters just keep getting worse.

MileHighShooter

fire ants are painful but don't do much actual harm to anything if left alone, the crazy ants though have cause some shorts in electronics and in theory could possibly start a fire if they shorted the wrong circuits. biggest problem is, as far I read when I was still in the bug biz, that chem developers are still having trouble finding the right poisons to work on them. there was one really good bait that came about, and its OK on them, but works great on several other species. developing a new pesticide and getting it to market is not an easy task, nor is it cheap. some can take up to 10 years to get everything right and then get the ok from the EPA, OSHA and local Ag Dept's. the other hurdle after that, is many, MANY PCO's are very habit forming, and stick to certain chemicals that have worked for them and are reluctant to change. when talking about the larger companies, getting new product on can be almost impossible, since millions of service tickets that are pre-printed have to be changed to add that chemical on there.

Pest control is a slow moving business for the most part, but the invasive bugs? They move quite fast

Buffco

MileHighShooter wrote: »

fire ants are painful but don't do much actual harm to anything if left alone, the crazy ants though have cause some shorts in electronics and in theory could possibly start a fire if they shorted the wrong circuits. biggest problem is, as far I read when I was still in the bug biz, that chem developers are still having trouble finding the right poisons to work on them. there was one really good bait that came about, and its OK on them, but works great on several other species. developing a new pesticide and getting it to market is not an easy task, nor is it cheap. some can take up to 10 years to get everything right and then get the ok from the EPA, OSHA and local Ag Dept's. the other hurdle after that, is many, MANY PCO's are very habit forming, and stick to certain chemicals that have worked for them and are reluctant to change. when talking about the larger companies, getting new product on can be almost impossible, since millions of service tickets that are pre-printed have to be changed to add that chemical on there.

Pest control is a slow moving business for the most part, but the invasive bugs? They move quite fast

Fire ants are notorious down here for getting in the contacts of a/c units, well pumps... Especially in the winter. Whenever the wife tells me the heat quit working or the water isn't running, I head outside with a piece of emory board or a fingernail file. And some bug spray.

Make_My_Day

Buffco wrote: »

Fire ants are notorious down here for getting in the contacts of a/c units, well pumps... Especially in the winter. Whenever the wife tells me the heat quit working or the water isn't running, I head outside with a piece of emory board or a fingernail file. And some bug spray.

Being from Florida, I have been stung by these nasty critters many times. It is not fun and every time it happens I get a painful and very itchy lump on my body where I've been bitten. A day or two later, the site of the bite turns into a nasty pimple that needs to be popped and cleaned out with alcohol. These critters, from what I understand inject Formic Acid into the bite, and can cause an anaphylactic shock to a victim that is allergic to this toxin. The day I first moved to Florida, I was unloading my moving truck after dark and unknowingly stepped into a fire ant mound and was quickly stung by around 20 or 30 of the damn things. It was pretty bad for a couple of days.....Intense itching and bouts of nausea. The only thing that seemed to help was occasional use of rubbing alcohol on the bites and lots of ice to control the itching. They also invaded the circuitry of my well pump this spring and disabled it for about 12 hours until I could get someone to fix the problem.

Teach

We've got a few less fire ants in our neighborhood- - - - -thanks to the energetic application of Tannerite to some ant mounds over the weekend!
:cool2:
Jerry

JLDickmon

after dark..
punch a hole in the mound with a hunk of re-bar..
fill the mound with diesel fuel through the hole..
light a road flare..
insert the lit end through the hole..

problem solved

Make_My_Day

JLDickmon wrote: »

after dark..
punch a hole in the mound with a hunk of re-bar..
fill the mound with diesel fuel through the hole..
light a road flare..
insert the lit end through the hole..problem solved

Hey, I LIKE that idea!

tennmike

If you're dealing with small mounds of fire ants a 5 gallon bucket and some dry ice will take care of them without a trip to the burn unit. :tooth: Get a bag of play sand, a few 5 gallon buckets, and a big chunk of dry ice if you have several mounds. Break off a hunk of dry ice with a hammer, throw it on the mound (use welders gloves to handle the dry ice and don't hold it long :silly:), tip the bucket over it open end down, and put sand around the perimeter of the bucket to seal it. Ants need O2, and the CO2 kills them. It works on ants and yellow jackets, but you have to mark the yellow jacket hole during the day, and do the deed at night when they aren't out and about.

For the black and white hornets (paper wasps I think they're called) I use a kerosene soaked rag on a longish pole late at night. Light the rag and extend the burning rag under the nest opening. Crispy critters!

Fat Billy

I'm safe as long as no one develops an ex wife ant. An ex wife ant doesn't breed it just sits there and gets bigger and becomes more venomous. :bang: Later,

justin10mm

Yet another wonderful gift from our friends south of the border.

JLDickmon

Make_My_Day wrote: »

Hey, I LIKE that idea!

works good on ground bees too.