Dealing with Fire Ants

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Homes & Gardens

Sunday, 11 October 2009 05:55

By Simply XQuisite

Dre’s Landscaping, like many agricultural farmers and residential home owners, has had to deal with fire ants. These little insects tend to be major agricultural and urban pests, with implications resulting in lower yields for farmers and frightening, painful bites for humans.

Owner Dre says fire ant control can be time consuming and costly, and yes, we have all heard of so many ways and means of eradicating this pest.  He says the key, though, is to make sure you treat or remove all the mounds, because if you miss even one young mound, then all your efforts would be in vain and re-infestation will occur. He adds that it is also important to kill only the fire ants, and not all of the ants, or things will only get worse in the future, since the native ants do help to slow down the spread of the fire ants.

He advises that there are many products available on the market that claim to best deal with fire ants, but emphasizes that people need to pay special attention, since some, bait products in particular, affect other ants, as well as birds, pets and other creatures. Some chemicals may also be harmful to humans. He suggests seeking professional advice.

According to Dre, some of the commonly suggested methods of getting rid of the fire ants are:

•    Drowning them
•    Pouring boiling water on the colony
•    Inserting dry ice into the hole
•    Planting spearmint around the nest
•    Human urine to repel and possibly kill the ants

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