North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[<larizzo@charter.net>]

After having lived in College Station, TX (home of Texas A&M university) for 
20 years, I'll say the fire ants have a definite edge and have devastated a 
variety of wildlife, including upland birds, rabbits, etc.  I have lived with 
fire ants in my beds for years, and haven't found much that gets them for 
long - nothing organic, most recently.  The problem is, they've developed 
multiple queen colonies which are not observable as "mounds" anymore - they 
forage throughout the grass and it's hard to control them without simply 
spraying the whole area.  People used to treat for them, now most of my old 
neighbors have given up.  Boiling water does work, but only on mounds - and 
it does a job on your grass.  Some people use gasoline - and even torch the 
mounds.  I'm not sure about d-limonene - have seen it used for fleas but it 
doesn't work that well for them.  At least the fire ants kill fleas, so my 
dogs like it.  I used Amdro for a long time - but couldn't afford it after 
about 2004.  You used to be able to get it in bulk from the extension 
service.  

Organically, you could try grain mites - they are a parasite to fire ants and 
for awhile they were doing research on using them on a wider scale.

Lori - who left TX to get away from fire ants (but now have them in my 
county!)
Maryville, TN  Zone 7
---- Donna &/or Kieran <holycow@cookeville.com> wrote: 
>     Limonene works against fire ants??!!   That explains the product I 
> heard of that seemed to disappear off t.he market, that used citrus to 
> dissolve their exoskeletons,