How do you deal (organically) with fire ants?

R.R.

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I hate them and I'm afraid of them. That's why I've had to use the fire ant killer a few times this year already, and a couple of times it was too close to my plants.

Is there any good, organic way of getting rid of them?
 

Chuck

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I hate them and I'm afraid of them. That's why I've had to use the fire ant killer a few times this year already, and a couple of times it was too close to my plants.

Is there any good, organic way of getting rid of them?
SPINOSAD
 

claudine

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I've never seen fire ants in real life, because they don't live in my area, but I heard that they can injure humans and animals:eek: It's scary!
As far as I know, all ants hate cinnamon. My mother sometimes sprinkles it in her garden.
 

R.R.

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I didn't know that! I love cinnamon. I'll use spinosad from now on, but maybe I'll sprinkle a little cinnamon for the smell :)

They are really bad. A few years ago I heard on the news that a woman in Florida died from their bites because she was gardening and inadvertently stepped on a fire ants mound.
 

Chuck

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I didn't know that! I love cinnamon. I'll use spinosad from now on, but maybe I'll sprinkle a little cinnamon for the smell :)

They are really bad. A few years ago I heard on the news that a woman in Florida died from their bites because she was gardening and inadvertently stepped on a fire ants mound.
Once upon a time there was a product on the market called GreenLight Fire Ant Killer with Conserve. It was a bait and it really worked until the government made them stop making it. There are other baits out there, one of them is Come and Get It. All of them have spinosad as their active ingredient but they just don't work very well because of the miniscule amout of spinosad in them. Liquid spinosad is a different story. Use it as a soil drench. 2 oz spinosad 1 oz molasses per gallon of water. Usually a quart of the mixture is plenty for a big mound and the mound is usually dead in 3 days.

Fire ants actually kill newborn lambs, kid goats, calves and colts. If you have ever got into them you will understand how.
 

claudine

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This is horrible:eek: I knew that it's better to stay away from fire ants, but I had no idea that they can be that dangerous:( Now, I feel very fortunate that I've never met them. In Poland, we have tiny, red ants. They sometimes bite, but it's nothing serious, I haven't heard of anyone who would get injured by them.
 

Chuck

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This is horrible:eek: I knew that it's better to stay away from fire ants, but I had no idea that they can be that dangerous:( Now, I feel very fortunate that I've never met them. In Poland, we have tiny, red ants. They sometimes bite, but it's nothing serious, I haven't heard of anyone who would get injured by them.
Fire ants aren't all bad, just 99% bad. They also attack fleas and ticks. And you pets too.
 

claudine

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Haha, 99% bad is enough to terrify me:p It's good that they attack ticks, but I wouldn't want them to attack my dog. He's a tiny Yorkie. If we had fire ants here, I wouldn't let him spend time in our garden, it would be too risky:(
 

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