"Ulysses" wrote in
:


"Freckles" wrote in message
...

"Ulysses" wrote in message
...
I have a big problem with little ants. Not the really tiny
micro-ants,
but
the red ones that are maybe 1/2" long. They are surprisingly
painful
when
they bite you and leave a sizable welt. I have tried sprinkling
the anthills with Bug-B-Gone and it seems to work for about three
days and then
they just open up a new hole and go on about their business. I
even
tried
spraying them with Raid but that had little effect. Anyone have a
product
that they like for getting rid of ants? If it's possible I would
prefer
a
product that won't kill any birds that eat the ants. The quail
appear
to
eat the ants but I can't really confirm this. In any case they
don't
eat
enough of them to make a difference so now I'm wondering about
anteaters and
if they would like living in Southern California High Desert and if
the coyotes would bother them and if they could actually control
the
problem.
Seriously.


Sounds like you have fire ants.

There are fire ant baits that work somewhat in at least slowing them
up.
One
year I had so many fire ant mounds in my yard I had my lawn care
company spread something on my yard that got rid of them for that one
season. It
was
rather expensive and I don't know if it was lethal to the birds, but
it
did
stop the ants for a year or so.

Here in Texas they are experimenting using some kind of imported tiny
wasps
that are supposed to eradicate fire ants for once and all.

Freckles



If they are fire ants then I guess I should call Vector Control. I
think I heard something several years ago about a county program to
try to control the. I just never knew what a fire ant was.

As for getting rid of their food supply I live on 20 acres and they
appear t o eat the greasewood and sage brush and I'm not allowed to
clear it due to environmental protection laws. Occasionally I'll
throw a dead mouse from a mouse trap into the bushes and they might be
eating those but I'm talking about a LOT of ants. When the sun is
shining I don't think there is one square yard of my 20 acres that
does not have at least one ant on it, usually a red ant. That seems
to leave amdro (I'll have to look that up), DDT (that should work,
might be hard to find though), and gasoline. Gasoline I can get but
I'll have to make sure the Fire Captian isn't flying over as I live in
and Extreme Fire Hazard Area. :-D




FIRE ANTS ARE NOT 1/2 inch long.

DONT put gasoline on the ground,it gets into the ground water and pollutes
it,even a small amount of gas.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net