"Freckles" wrote in
:


"Jim Yanik" wrote in message
...
"Freckles" wrote in
:


"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




fire ants are only about 1/8" long.

the wasp is the Phorid Fly.

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/...d_fly_species_
turns _red_imported_fire_ants_into_zombies.html

or;
http://tinyurl.com/posc8f

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

The fire ant sizes vary from about 1/16" to about 3/8" in each mound
here in Texas that I have seen.

Freckles



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ant

says there's 280 species of fire ant,and that they range from 0.12" to
0.24",or 1/4" or smaller.
2mm to 6mm for the metric fans.

Here in Florida,I've only seen the small version.

(I guess this is more of that "Texas grows 'em bigger" baloney...) 8-)


more 'good' news....;

Recently there has been a large spike in the fire ant population of the
southern United States[5]. Environmentalists have predicted that before
April 2010 the fire ant population will have increased by nearly 40% in the
United States.[6] The ants are believed to be coming from Mexico and
contain a much more poisonous venom than other fire ants, thus causing many
states to start emergency programs to destroy fire ant colonies before they
spread.[7]

damn Mexicans.....even their ants are coming in illegally!

just what we need,"a much more poisonous venom",too!

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net