For the first time,I have ant hills in my yard, 3 within 10 feet of my
front door**. Is this something I don't want? I have a feeling that
I don't.

If I don't want them, is there an effective, perhaps easy way to get
rid of them?

** (or maybe one big hill with three entrances)

Thanks a lot.

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.

Have you tried phoning or visiting a local garden center, telling them
you problem and seeking their advise? We don't know where you
live, so we have to guess a bit about what may be legal to purchase
and use in your area. We also don't know if you have children or
pets, which can be a concern if they may come in contact with the
chemical that you use.

I still use Diazinon on ant hills, but I stockpiled quite a bit of the
chemical before it was outlawed for sale in the U.S. a few years ago.
Still, there are certainly many suitable replacement products on the
market. I just sprinkle a generous amount around the ant hill. Dursban
should be almost as good if it is still sold.

Good luck,
Gideon

==================

mm wrote in message ...
For the first time,I have ant hills in my yard, 3 within 10 feet of my
front door**. Is this something I don't want? I have a feeling that
I don't.

If I don't want them, is there an effective, perhaps easy way to get
rid of them?

** (or maybe one big hill with three entrances)

Thanks a lot.

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.

mm wrote:
For the first time,I have ant hills in my yard, 3 within 10 feet of my
front door**. Is this something I don't want? I have a feeling that
I don't.

If I don't want them, is there an effective, perhaps easy way to get
rid of them?

** (or maybe one big hill with three entrances)


I've had good sucess with fire ant mounds in the yard using Beyer's Fire Ant
powder (which I bought at Lowe's). You just sprinkle a little on the mound and
then trickle a little bit of water over it. Do not drown the hill and don't
kick it either... you don't want to stir up the residents who might then move.
The idea is that the workers should track the stuff in while doing their normal
chores and take it back to the queen. When the queen dies, the colony dies.

Be on the lookout for additional mounds... there's seldom only one.

Did I mention I hate the little *******s?




--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

DE might be a good thing to try (Diatomaceaous Earth - finely ground
microorganism fossils), though you'll want to read up on whether it's
effective for outdoor use. It's not a poison, the fine crystaline
edges of the powder actually cut the ants' exoskeleton as they walk
through it and they basically "bleed" to death. It's nontoxic to
humans and pets and usually is found in garden centers.

I have had sucess with plain ole Borax on some kinds of ants. Its cheap
and you may already have some in your house for cleaning purposes. Just
dust the mounds and immidiate area with it plus any visible ant trails
if you have them.

In article , NOPSAMmm2005
@bigfoot.com says...
If I don't want them, is there an effective, perhaps easy way to get
rid of them?


Any insecticide solution that is mixed water then drench the mound will
work easily enough, even if you decide to dilute it more than what is
called for. A cantaloupe size mound will get about a gallon. Baits can
be another alternative, but you need to know what type of ant you are
dealing with.
--
Lar

to email....get rid of the BUGS

In article .com,
says...
I have had sucess with plain ole Borax on some kinds of ants. Its cheap
and you may already have some in your house for cleaning purposes. Just
dust the mounds and immidiate area with it plus any visible ant trails
if you have them.


the problem with borates is that it is a repellant and by dusting mounds
can actually cause the colony to "bud", where now that you see the one
inactive mound you may have three active mounds that will show
themselves in a couple of weeks.
--
Lar

to email....get rid of the BUGS

"mm" wrote in message ...
| For the first time,I have ant hills in my yard, 3 within 10 feet of my
| front door**. Is this something I don't want? I have a feeling that
| I don't.
|
| If I don't want them, is there an effective, perhaps easy way to get
| rid of them?
|
| ** (or maybe one big hill with three entrances)
|
| Thanks a lot.
|
| Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
| me know if you have posted also.

I have had great luck using Malathion on my ants - kills them dead and no new ones come to replace them. If you want to know more us the following URL.

http://www.ncchem.com/malathion.htm

As I learned about whiteout from WIMIS, don't drink it and wash up after using it on the ant hill.


--
PDQ

--

On 1 Nov 2005 04:41:25 -0800, "louie" wrote:

DE might be a good thing to try (Diatomaceaous Earth - finely ground
microorganism fossils), though you'll want to read up on whether it's
effective for outdoor use. It's not a poison, the fine crystaline
edges of the powder actually cut the ants' exoskeleton as they walk
through it and they basically "bleed" to death. It's nontoxic to
humans and pets and usually is found in garden centers.

Thanks to all of you. I should have given more details, but when I
started to post, the question was meant only to be, Do I want to get
rid of them? All three of you imply that I do, so I will start.

BTW, I had diatomaceaous earth in my chemistry set when I was about
12. Maybe the manual said what it was, but I guess I didn't read or
forgot that part. I know I never used it for anything. Where is my
chemistry set anyhow I haven't seen it for 40 years.

(no kids and none that visit, I live in Baltimore.)

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.

mm wrote:
For the first time,I have ant hills in my yard, 3 within 10 feet of my
front door**. Is this something I don't want? I have a feeling that
I don't.

If I don't want them, is there an effective, perhaps easy way to get
rid of them?

** (or maybe one big hill with three entrances)

IMHO, it depends on the ants. Back when I lived in fire ant country, ants were
battled with every means under the sun. Times I've lived up north (such as
now), I basically just ignore 'em unless they decide to come in the house.

mm wrote:
On 1 Nov 2005 04:41:25 -0800, "louie" wrote:


DE might be a good thing to try (Diatomaceaous Earth - finely ground
microorganism fossils), though you'll want to read up on whether it's
effective for outdoor use. It's not a poison, the fine crystaline
edges of the powder actually cut the ants' exoskeleton as they walk
through it and they basically "bleed" to death. It's nontoxic to
humans and pets and usually is found in garden centers.


Thanks to all of you. I should have given more details, but when I
started to post, the question was meant only to be, Do I want to get
rid of them? All three of you imply that I do, so I will start.

I go bonkers every time I see a post about an ant hill in the yard that
NEEDS to be eradicated. It is pointless and foolish, and has a better
chance of harming the environment than doing any good. Treat problems
that threaten the house, yard. Ants are often beneficial (pollinating,
eating other critters, etc.) and the poison adds up. If a couple of ant
hills bother you, you need a hobby other than exterminating )



BTW, I had diatomaceaous earth in my chemistry set when I was about
12. Maybe the manual said what it was, but I guess I didn't read or
forgot that part. I know I never used it for anything. Where is my
chemistry set anyhow I haven't seen it for 40 years.

(no kids and none that visit, I live in Baltimore.)

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.

Norminn wrote:
I go bonkers every time I see a post about an ant hill in the yard that
NEEDS to be eradicated. It is pointless and foolish, and has a better
chance of harming the environment than doing any good. Treat problems
that threaten the house, yard. Ants are often beneficial (pollinating,
eating other critters, etc.) and the poison adds up. If a couple of ant
hills bother you, you need a hobby other than exterminating )


The only ants I **** with are fire ants... and they started it. I was standing
outside talking to the mailman when I noticed that something was biting the crap
out of me. It turned out I was standing on a little flat spot that fire ants
had cultivated. Ever since then, I've taken a perverse pleasure in wiping the
little *******s off the face of the earth. If that isn't green enough for you,
so be it.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 19:05:52 -0000, Mapanari
wrote:


If it's fire ants, Amdro works great.

I actually haven't seen the ants yet. Don't know what they are.
There's not a lot of traffic, but maybe I haven't looked closely
enough. (Found another hill on my property in the back yard but
pretty far from the house.)

It gets down to 40 at night, 60 in the day. Is it now or will it soon
be so cold that the population won't grow until spring?


Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.

mm wrote:

If it's fire ants, Amdro works great.

I actually haven't seen the ants yet. Don't know what they are.
There's not a lot of traffic, but maybe I haven't looked closely
enough. (Found another hill on my property in the back yard but
pretty far from the house.)


The easiest way to tell what kind of ants they are is to step on the mound for a
moment. If ants start swarming out by the hundreds, it's probably fire ants.
If you're not sure, just keep standing on the mound.




--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

this is Turtle.

Hey Don't be talking bad about my little friends in the hvac business.
Ants product about 1 in 5 service calls of the ants nest in the outdoor
equipment and messing with the controls. that is about 20% of my
service calls / business is generated by ants in the residentiual HVAC
business.

TURTLE

On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 21:46:02 GMT, "Mortimer Schnerd, RN"
wrote:

mm wrote:

If it's fire ants, Amdro works great.

I actually haven't seen the ants yet. Don't know what they are.
There's not a lot of traffic, but maybe I haven't looked closely
enough. (Found another hill on my property in the back yard but
pretty far from the house.)


The easiest way to tell what kind of ants they are is to step on the mound for a
moment. If ants start swarming out by the hundreds, it's probably fire ants.
If you're not sure, just keep standing on the mound.

I've stepped on all three at various times because they're in my way.
AFAICT, nothing is coming out of them. If there was a hole in the
top, it hasn't been redug.

It's too early for cold weather to have slowed them down, isn't it.
It hasn't been below 60 during the day, I think. Certainly not below
50.

Do they have fire ants in Baltimore? I thought they were like in
Arizona.

I haven't made it to the garden shop yet., but the hills aren't
getting bigger.

And I'm considering Norminnn's laissez faire policy. I figured there
would be another side.

(My roommate did his thesis on leaf cutter ants in Costa Rica. They
were interesting. And I got bit by one or two ants that live in
thorns there. Not rose thorns, something else, longer more woody
thorns, with a hole in the base of each one that the ants use to go in
and out. One or two hurts a bit, but some people get hundreds and
that's really bad.)

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.

mm wrote:
Do they have fire ants in Baltimore? I thought they were like in
Arizona.


We sure as hell have them in the Carolinas. If they're not all the way to MD
yet, they're coming.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:

Norminn wrote:

I go bonkers every time I see a post about an ant hill in the yard that
NEEDS to be eradicated. It is pointless and foolish, and has a better
chance of harming the environment than doing any good. Treat problems
that threaten the house, yard. Ants are often beneficial (pollinating,
eating other critters, etc.) and the poison adds up. If a couple of ant
hills bother you, you need a hobby other than exterminating )



The only ants I **** with are fire ants... and they started it. I was standing
outside talking to the mailman when I noticed that something was biting the crap
out of me. It turned out I was standing on a little flat spot that fire ants
had cultivated. Ever since then, I've taken a perverse pleasure in wiping the
little *******s off the face of the earth. If that isn't green enough for you,
so be it.



Fire ants are not part of my ecology ) I used to do nature
photography, when I was new to Florida. I invariably found the perfect
spot for my tripod was on top of a fire ant mound ) Took a while
before they had me trained. The nastiest trait they have is that a
bunch of them are on you before you know it, and then they all bite at
once. At least they don't hang on like carpenter ants do )

A tiny bit of Amdro, properly placed, goes a long way. Putting it down
just before rain or lawn watering is a waste. Ours came out right away
to gobble it up and take it down the tunnel )

I suppose that eventually the pythons, toxic toads, eels, walking fish,
etc., that have been imported will start balancing other unsavory pests
) Did you see the python that swallowed a six-foot gator? Wow! I
have a feeling the poodle population might be in trouble ) I wonder
where they are taking all the formosan termites from New Orleans that
are in the ruined structures being taken down?

In article . net,
says...
I wonder
where they are taking all the formosan termites from New Orleans that
are in the ruined structures being taken down?


La. has contracted out with dump sites in Texas and Arkansas....
--
Lar

to email....get rid of the BUGS

On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 09:31:17 -0500, "PDQ" wrote:


I have had great luck using Malathion on my ants - kills them dead and no new ones come to replace them. If you want to know more us the following URL.

I have some malathion that my mother bought to fight bagworms, about
48 years ago. Do you think it is worth trying. (I inherited it
about 9 years ago, and I still haven't the strength to go through any
of my mother's stuff.)

http://www.ncchem.com/malathion.htm

As I learned about whiteout from WIMIS, don't drink it and wash up after using it on the ant hill.