"Ulysses" wrote in
:


"Red Green" wrote in message
...
Jim Yanik wrote in
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"Ulysses" wrote in
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"Freckles" wrote in message
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"Ulysses" wrote in message
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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.

Fire ants that big would really spook me knowing what the std 1/8" or
so ones feel like.


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


That's right. You must be ecological. Recycle your used motor oil on
them instead :-)


Most of us experiemented with solar power when we were kids by using a
magnifying glass to incinerate ants, right? Well maybe I could get a
big lens and set it up over each ant hill for a while.



Well with all the wizardry around here you would think someone could rig
their cell phone to redirect Hubble. Them 20 acres of ants will just
start poppin' and cracklin' all over the place.