When I lived in FL I had an ant problem in my house once so I went to the big box hardware store and got some of Ortho's gel ant bait. And placed it at points of entry for the ants

OMG, worst mistake I have ever done.

I had a ton more ants in the house than before the bait (shoulda known) and they were eating it faster than i could apply it but they said after 2 weeks they will take it back to the nest and it will kill them all. 3-4 weeks later I was infested with ants. Ortho did give me 4 free coupons good for any of their products but it was horrible.

I did end up getting rid of them (I think a tip i saw here) naturally. If i'm not mistaken it was with cayenne pepper powder (i forget since its been a while). I'm not sure if that would work in your situation but worth some investigation.

 

I don't know what counts as safe under the organic requirements. We use Amdro in the house, Orthene outside.

 

Here in North East Texas I treat every mound I see outside with Amdro or sometimes Orthene. I treat around the house with Amdro bait. Have not had them in the house but did have them in the air pump electrical box for the septic system. Had to spray that and clean them all out. (Dumb ants!)
Andrew.

 

Contact the company and they should be able to tell you where it is sold. They have records of that sort of thing.

Mon

 

Contact the company and they should be able to tell you where it is sold. They have records of that sort of thing.

Mon

Yea, I can attest to them having good customer service. They sat there and tried to figure out why the bait didnt work. Final conclusion:Florida has too many ants. Call their 800 number and a real person (that you can understand) answers right away.

 

I always just fed em grits when I lived down south. Tough when it's raining though, but when it's dry some uncooked grits or rice goes a long way. They eat it dry and then the stuff expands in their stomachs and they explode. Not as good a show as I make it sound, but effective anyway.

 

You can make compost tea, dilute it to look like strong iced tea, add a couple oz of orange oil, cup of liq molasses & squirt of dish soap. This WILL kill em.
If you can pour boiling water over 'em 1st, its very gratifying.

 

Pouring boiling water on the nests would certainly be organic. We did that but maybe with two acres to treat that would not be feasible.

 

I used to have a small problem with fire ants.
Another type of ant ran all of them out. I forgot what the new kind is called but I wish I had the fire ants back. They were a lot fewer of them and they were tame compared to this type.

 

Does diatomaceous earth not work on fire ants? I'm getting pretty fond of the stuff LOL

 

I imagine AZ has fire ants too and they scare me to death. Was attacked by ants when I was about 11 and still suffer from nightmares about it! I know we need the ants but we don't need them so much in my yard. I am gonna hire an exterminator this spring to cut them off at the pass!

 

Mason jar, rub the inside rim with organic olive oil place in their nest and anger them, supposedly this will get the workers into the jar to get trapped.

molasses/jelly + Boric acid (dunno if that's organic)

or check amazon for what you need.

 

Does diatomaceous earth not work on fire ants? I'm getting pretty fond of the stuff LOL

Completely useless where I live. The humidity is too high. It turns into a rock over night. Guess I could use it to smash the ants.

 

I wander if you could burn them out with a torch or something?

 

I have heard of Ag operations trying to kill them and getting dead ants 2 inches deep in the field! Can they kill you like African Bees can?

 

I always just fed em grits when I lived down south. Tough when it's raining though, but when it's dry some uncooked grits or rice goes a long way. They eat it dry and then the stuff expands in their stomachs and they explode. Not as good a show as I make it sound, but effective anyway.

That would be great IF it were true

But it's not

 

Fire ants build complex UNDERground colonies with multiple queens. Hot water doesn't kill them.

Grits doesn't work.

Amazon has a spinosad spray

http://www.amazon.com/Monterey-LG6135-Contains-Spinosad-32-Ounce/dp/B002BP12LI

 

Does diatomaceous earth not work on fire ants? I'm getting pretty fond of the stuff LOL

Not really.
Unless you kill the Queen, you are only wasting effort

A bait made of 3 parts sugar to one part Boric Acid, and enough water to make it a paste might work, but I'm not sure if it's considered "organic"

 

I got rid of the fire ants here with baking soda and vinegar. I poured a bunch of baking soda on the hill starting a couple feet out from the hill and spiraling in then did the same with white vinegar. I haven't seen any sign of them in over a year. It will discolor the grass temporarily though

 

I always just fed em grits when I lived down south. Tough when it's raining though, but when it's dry some uncooked grits or rice goes a long way. They eat it dry and then the stuff expands in their stomachs and they explode. Not as good a show as I make it sound, but effective anyway.

Thats what we use and it works GREAT!!!! We get the big bag of grits at Sams and srinkle some over the mounds.

 

The truth about grits.

http://www.pestproducts.com/grits.htm

 

I don't know what would work for them but if anyone finds out I sure would like to know. If you are going to try DE, be sure to get just DE. My DD got some for me a couple years ago at her feed store and it had clay in it. I imagine that would get hard as a rock. I use it on my chickens for mites.

 

Thats what we use and it works GREAT!!!!
We get the big bag of grits at Sams and srinkle some over the mounds.

It's scientifically impossible since fire ants cannnot swallow solid foods

The reason you THINK it works is most any disturbance to a mound causes the ants to simply change locations