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08/04/11, 08:54 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 158
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Drought killing fire ants?
Husband just informed me the fire ants in the pasture are all dead or dying. This is the first year that fire ants haven't taken over the okra. Has anyone else in south Texas noticed this?
Sandy
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Roddy and Sandra
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08/04/11, 09:20 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2008
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Just guessing, but possibly their inability to reach moisture is getting them? I'm in central Louisiana, and we're in a serious drought also, but I'm still putting poison on the mounds, although not seeing near as many mounds as back in the spring. But I have lived in south Texas, and understand the differences in ground moisture between S. Texas, and Central La.
b
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08/04/11, 09:50 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: MS
Posts: 24,572
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We've had drought conditions the last two or three summers (not as bad as TX though) and we've also noticed a decrease in fireants.
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08/04/11, 09:55 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 158
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I was hoping something good would come out of this drought. The ground here is so dry that big cracks are forming. I worry the cows will break a leg.
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Roddy and Sandra
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08/04/11, 09:56 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 1,179
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Oh, now that WOULD be a nice thing to come out of the drought/heat, if other things weren't suffering so much.
In our part of SC ours are just building their usual huge end of the summer mounds. Our chickens seem to have killed all the hills in the backyard, though. *yay for chickens*
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08/04/11, 10:16 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 158
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I can tell rain is coming when the ants form mounds. This spring they were all flat and hard to see. We have around 100 chickens and they don't eat fire ants or grass hoppers 
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Roddy and Sandra
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08/04/11, 10:33 PM
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homesteader
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: SE Missouri
Posts: 28,248
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Have not seen a decrease at all in fire ants. My chickens do a good job on the hoppers but never seem to eat ants.
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Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)
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08/04/11, 10:50 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: KY
Posts: 12,672
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I thought fire ants could live through anything. I'd even have to wonder if they have any natural predators. Guess I need to go do a search and educate myself. I hope everyone gets a lot of rain even if it does help the ants.
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08/04/11, 11:50 PM
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Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 58
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Yep
I must amit I've noticed a significant decline in fire ants this year. I figure it's the drought and extreme low humidity.
However I had rather have the ants than this historic drought!
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08/05/11, 12:48 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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You know, I almost posted a question about this a few weeks ago! I usually fight them constantly, but for the past few months I have noticed that there aren't nearly as many ant piles as there usually are. We have had a big one where our mail box post goes into the ground for YEARS, and I've always hated mowing and weed eating around it. I've put Amdro and Orthene and gasoline on it, and it always comes back. Always. But the last couple of times I've weed eated around it the past few months, it's gone. Dead. Same thing all around the property--very few, and the few I find are in moist places like in my large potted plants!!
I'd be happy as a clam if the darn things ALL died and never came back.
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08/05/11, 01:23 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Eastern North Carolina
Posts: 34,238
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Drought just makes them go deeper to find moisture.
If you do get a good rain, you'll see new mounds everywhere
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08/05/11, 01:35 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,486
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They are heavy around water......goats couldn't even drink without dealing with them because they were all over the water troughs....had to move the girls, kill the ants & then let the girls back out. They are near any water (even the barn cats water dish) but out in the yard there are few to be seen this year.
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08/05/11, 07:25 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Jackson county, Texas
Posts: 348
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I agree, they are just going deeper. I watered a pecan tree the other day because I noticed nuts on the ground, the next morning an ant mound was built up next to the tree.
If you want to know if the ants are around just throw part of a cookie on the ground and see how long before the first one show's up. My grandson loves to do this, we call it the ant races.
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08/05/11, 09:55 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 4,624
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Quote:
Originally Posted by soulsurvivor
I thought fire ants could live through anything. I'd even have to wonder if they have any natural predators. Guess I need to go do a search and educate myself. I hope everyone gets a lot of rain even if it does help the ants.
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They do, just not here, since they are imported and not native to here. There have been predators brought in.
I guess we'll know if we ever get rain again whether the drought has made a dent in them. When the ground gets wet, the ants will come up.
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08/05/11, 10:38 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 158
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Mary, Raspberry ants have shown up close to here. They eat the fire ants but they are worse. They eat everything and destroy electrical systems. I haven't heard of them killing livestock yet, so that's a plus. During the 1980 drought, fire ants would go after our rabbits. We wouldn't see any fire ants around and next thing you know the nest boxes would be covered.
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Roddy and Sandra
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08/05/11, 10:54 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Texas
Posts: 1,176
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LoneStrChic23
They are heavy around water......goats couldn't even drink without dealing with them because they were all over the water troughs....had to move the girls, kill the ants & then let the girls back out. They are near any water (even the barn cats water dish) but out in the yard there are few to be seen this year.
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Yup!! I even have them in my house. I have fought them in my cupboards, on the floor in the cats food, and now they are all over my clothes that are hanging in the closet. UHG!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have sooooooo many bite all over my hands. They have been walking right over the ant powder that I have all around my baseboards.
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08/05/11, 03:06 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 4,624
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Quote:
Originally Posted by freeholdfarms
Mary, Raspberry ants have shown up close to here. They eat the fire ants but they are worse. They eat everything and destroy electrical systems. I haven't heard of them killing livestock yet, so that's a plus. During the 1980 drought, fire ants would go after our rabbits. We wouldn't see any fire ants around and next thing you know the nest boxes would be covered.
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Yea, I had fire ants kill a clutch of chicks just as they were hatching. All of a sudden they just were there. Not nice creatures. Between them and the snakes, I have given up on letting hens hatch eggs.
I read in the paper the other day that the raspberry ants had not yet been documented to be in our county. That, of course, does not mean that they aren't. I've seen some little crazy ants that I think could be them, but I don't know.
The predator I was thinking of is, if I recall correctly, some sort of fly. Not sure. I'd have to look it up.
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08/05/11, 03:07 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 4,624
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Quote:
Originally Posted by amwitched
Yup!! I even have them in my house. I have fought them in my cupboards, on the floor in the cats food, and now they are all over my clothes that are hanging in the closet. UHG!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have sooooooo many bite all over my hands. They have been walking right over the ant powder that I have all around my baseboards.
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Yikes. We get ants in the house, but I don't think we've gotten fire ants in the house.
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08/05/11, 03:12 PM
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Dallas
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: N of Dallas, TX
Posts: 10,124
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I haven't see any fire ants since about May in my area.
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08/05/11, 03:17 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: West Central Texas
Posts: 5,084
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bearfootfarm
Drought just makes them go deeper to find moisture.
If you do get a good rain, you'll see new mounds everywhere
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Oh yeah -- it's amazing how deep they can go and sort of "hibernate" until it rains. Then the mounds just pop up overnight and everywhere.
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