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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Ant control

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  • From: <larizzo@charter.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Ant control
  • Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:33:34 -0700

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,




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