Found sawdust from hole being bored that was hidden by the garage door
either open or closed. Viewable only when door is open and then a
crack about 2" for access. Tried spackle but she just knocked it out.
Yesterday tried Liquid Nails and this morning it's still in place.
DAGS and suggestions boil down to gluing in a dowel but access
precludes that for us. Now to the big box for something for Fire
Ants. Have read that Amdro (SP?) works for them. Moved from So.
Calif to Georgia in December so we're experiencing more than merely a
different spectrum of birds.

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 07:49:44 -0400, wrote:



Found sawdust from hole being bored that was hidden by the garage door
either open or closed. Viewable only when door is open and then a
crack about 2" for access. Tried spackle but she just knocked it out.
Yesterday tried Liquid Nails and this morning it's still in place.
DAGS and suggestions boil down to gluing in a dowel but access
precludes that for us. Now to the big box for something for Fire
Ants. Have read that Amdro (SP?) works for them. Moved from So.
Calif to Georgia in December so we're experiencing more than merely a
different spectrum of birds.

Welcome to Georgia. Only been to California (San Fancisco) once, so my
experience is limited, but I think that you'll find the climate a bit
different - air gets humid enough in the mid-late summer that you'll wonder
whether you're breathing or drinking BG. On a visit, my Brother-in-Law, who
was living in San Francisco at the time, commented at our Labor Day cookout
that he now knew why it's so green here. Lived here all my life myself and
dunno if I'd like it anywhere else.

For Carpenter Bee control visit
http://georgiafaces.caes.uga.edu/sto...m?storyid=2805, it is an article
from the Ga Extension Service. They have a great newsletter that you can get
free if you shop around the Extension Service site for the signup link.

Amdro works and works well in my experience. It also appears to be not really
toxic to higher species - I had some ducklings following behind me eating the
stuff as I put it out a few years back. They probably ate a quarter cup or so
between the four of them and it didn't hurt em a bit. Wish I had seen them
eating the stuff sooner though - had to re-treat those mounds.

You should note that Amdro is not an instant fix - it takes a little time
between application and an empty mound. Dunno your level of infestation, but
if you use Amdro to knock the number of mounds back drastically this year,
you'll only have to treat a few here and there in the future as new colonies
establish from queens flying in from surrounding areas. Keep a close eye on
the edges and expansion joints of your driveway and concrete walkways - those
are favored locations for fire ants to establish colonies.

You can buy stuff that keeps the fire ants down all summer (their claim, but
I'm skeptical) and stuff that guarantees a quick kill, but I'd be afraid of
the toxic effect - particularly if I had young kids. Fire ants are a *lot*
less harmful (unless you're allergic to their sting) than the stuff that the
chemical companies try to say you've gotta use to have a "safe" yard. Even
though it's not fun to get mixed up in a nest of fire ants, they don't come
out for your throat whenever you set foot outdoors like the ads on TV would
have you believe.

Although I haven't heard of any releases in Ga, Fla has had several releases
of flies to control fire ants and what I've heard is positive. As I
understand, the flies are self sustaining in the wild now and spreading.

Hmmm - as I was typing, a new newsletter article came in from the Extension
Service. Since you are new to the area, you may find the info useful. This
URL will take you to the article -
http://georgiafaces.caes.uga.edu/sto...m?storyid=2811.

Hope I've been of help.



Later, Mike
(substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)
-----------------------------------


Please send all email as text - HTML is too hard to decipher as text.

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 07:49:44 -0400, wrote:

Found sawdust from hole being bored that was hidden by the garage door
either open or closed. Viewable only when door is open and then a
crack about 2" for access. Tried spackle but she just knocked it out.
Yesterday tried Liquid Nails and this morning it's still in place.
DAGS and suggestions boil down to gluing in a dowel but access
precludes that for us. Now to the big box for something for Fire
Ants. Have read that Amdro (SP?) works for them. Moved from So.
Calif to Georgia in December so we're experiencing more than merely a
different spectrum of birds.

For cbee's, should put moth balls in the holes before filling. Don't
remember why but I guess it is so they won't make another entrance to
the same chambers.

But I didn't know about the mothballs when I used plastci wood, and
they haven't been back for several years.

I didn't print the URL, because I printed out all I thought I would
ever need, but search on carpenter bee 'Michigan State university
Extension' . If you find 10 pages of pretty serious material, you
found what I found. You can add Xylocopa to the search words also,

Or maybe the whole first line "Two species of Xylocopa, or carpenter
bees, occur in the eastern U.S. Xylocopa vinginica is found from
Maine to Wisconsin and south to florida and Texas."

Does anyone know if it helps to have the words in the same order as
the the website has it, when searching?

Cbees are unlikely to sting, have to be held and provoked, and the
sting is mild. But I wouldn't assume this is true if I were on a
ladder. Heck, even if one innocently flies in your mouth, it might be
enough to knock you off. I had no problem. they weren't there all the
time. Most of them were out when I sealed their holes. I guess they
moved to my neighbors' -- is that my fault?

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 07:49:44 -0400, wrote:

Have read that Amdro (SP?) works for them. Moved from So.
Calif to Georgia in December so we're experiencing more than merely a
different spectrum of birds.


Amdro can work , just a bit slow, but it can be helpful when spread
like fertilizer to help keep future beds from forming. For existing
mounds any general liquid insecticide , even diluted 1/3 of the label
strength will be pretty much an instant fix to the existing beds,
though time consuming hunting them all down.


Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!!


Dancing dog is back!
http://media.ebaumsworld.com/smartdog.wmv

Another informative response Michael and a BIG thank you! Bee article
was interesting and I'll get mail from them on gardening.

Ant mounds are near the road, about 150 yards away from the house. A
few found the expansion joint at edge of garage floor and pad outside.
They sure like the Amdro. Label indicates a three day cycle for the
queen.

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:01:13 -0400 (EDT), "Michael Strickland"
wrote:

You should note that Amdro is not an instant fix - it takes a little time
between application and an empty mound. Dunno your level of infestation, but
if you use Amdro to knock the number of mounds back drastically this year,
you'll only have to treat a few here and there in the future as new colonies
establish from queens flying in from surrounding areas. Keep a close eye on
the edges and expansion joints of your driveway and concrete walkways - those
are favored locations for fire ants to establish colonies.

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:46:26 -0400, mm wrote:

Does anyone know if it helps to have the words in the same order as
the the website has it, when searching?

Makes a difference if the words are enclosed in quotes, otherwise search
engine *should* find any site with any of the words in them.

Within quotes means exact match, without quotes means find these words. This
holds true for all of the search engines I've used - YMMV.

Later, Mike
(substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)
-----------------------------------


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On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 23:52:25 -0500, Lar wrote:

Amdro can work , just a bit slow, but it can be helpful when spread
like fertilizer to help keep future beds from forming.

I've never broadcast it like that, it would be too expensive to cover the
area I need to cover. Sprinkling some on the mounds as they turn up isn't too
time consuming (good excuse to get a little exercise) and works well in my
experience.

Later, Mike
(substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)
-----------------------------------


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On Fri, 07 Apr 2006 06:42:10 -0400, wrote:

Another informative response Michael and a BIG thank you! Bee article
was interesting and I'll get mail from them on gardening.

You're welcome. I think you'll enjoy the articles they send out.

Ant mounds are near the road, about 150 yards away from the house. A
few found the expansion joint at edge of garage floor and pad outside.
They sure like the Amdro. Label indicates a three day cycle for the
queen.

Sounds like you don't have a bad problem - only a few around the house
itself. Even though it says 3 days to kill the queen (may actually be more
than one according to what I've read), it'll take a bit longer for all the
workers to die off.

Sometime around the middle of next month, take your Amdro with you on a walk
around your property and sprinkle a little on any new mounds that have turned
up. If you follow this procedure a few times each summer, you should never
have a problem with fire ants - has worked for me. It's particularly
important to take one of those walks first thing in the spring so you can
knock the colonies out before they produce mating swarms - takes a few weeks
after the weather warms in spring for the new queens and drones to mature.
IIRC you need to do it when the temp is 65F.

I have several articles I've collected over the years about fire ants and
their control. If you're interested, send me an email (address is mangled,
but fixable below) and I'll send them to you.

Just remember that you'll never be rid of them completely because new queens
will colonize your property from surrounding areas - and they can fly some
distance, particularly if they can ride the wind on swarm day.

Later, Mike
(substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)
-----------------------------------


Please send all email as text - HTML is too hard to decipher as text.

If you have fruit trees or a garden, you might want to make a carpenter
bee roosting (actually, egg-laying) board with straws instead of just
killing them off. They're the best pollinators you can have, and
really, really not much on stinging you, much less so than regular
honeybees, wasps, etc. There are all sorts of kits available online.

Fire ants, though, I can't tolerate. I'm terribly allergic. I try to be
really careful to make SURE they're fire ants - red, tiny, or red and
black halved and tiny - before treating the mounds. The regular old
solid-black ants (remember those?) if left alone will claim territory
and help to keep the fire ants out, as long as you don't poision the
good ant mounds.

I'm a chemical engineer and a gardener, so I prefer going the
lowest-impact route. A solution of orange oil, a few tablespoons
molasses, and a 2-3 gallons of BOILING water poured on a mound (you can
add a few drops of dish soap, too) has never failed to kill a fire ant
mound for me. Amdro HAS failed a few times, requiring a second-dose,
etc. Depends on if you can safely carrry the boiling water.

It does leave a small patch of dead grass, sometimes, but that quickly
goes away - and the molasses actually acts as a fertilizer, so your
grass will come back even better than before - and no poison in the
ground!

Samatha

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:01:13 -0400 (EDT), "Michael Strickland"
wrote:

Amdro works and works well in my experience. It also appears to be not really
toxic to higher species - I had some ducklings following behind me eating the
stuff as I put it out a few years back. They probably ate a quarter cup or so
between the four of them and it didn't hurt em a bit.

I'm not sure. In the stream behind my house I see these migrating
ducks. I'm scared to go back there, 'cause some are 200 pounds. Now
I know why.

On Fri, 07 Apr 2006 13:57:59 -0400, mm wrote:

I'm not sure. In the stream behind my house I see these migrating
ducks. I'm scared to go back there, 'cause some are 200 pounds. Now
I know why.

Must be something else working on those ducks, mine had no effects whatsoever
- unless it made em dumb. Seems they insisted on sleeping on the bank instead
of the island I built for em and the local foxes have disposed of them over
time.

Later, Mike
(substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)
-----------------------------------


Please send all email as text - HTML is too hard to decipher as text.

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 07:49:44 -0400, wrote:

Found sawdust from hole being bored that was hidden by the garage door
either open or closed. Viewable only when door is open and then a
crack about 2" for access. Tried spackle but she just knocked it out.
Yesterday tried Liquid Nails and this morning it's still in place.
DAGS and suggestions boil down to gluing in a dowel but access
precludes that for us. Now to the big box for something for Fire
Ants. Have read that Amdro (SP?) works for them. Moved from So.
Calif to Georgia in December so we're experiencing more than merely a
different spectrum of birds.


IMHO:

I've found that leaving the hole open and dusting the inside with
posion, works best for me. The female will come out, covered in
dust. She will try an flee, but I've seen males jump her and get dust
covered too. This way I got several bees with one treatment. With
the hole open, later female will try and save time and investigate the
hole, and become poisioned.

Since carpenter bees seem to rather reuse other holes than create new
ones, if you can kill them immediately, then you shouldn't get new
holes.

hth,

tom @ www.Japanese-Beetles.com