I would call the Bayer people. They should be able to give you some good information regarding this. Maybe some others will have experiences with this situation, but calling Bayer couldn't hurt :)

Amdro always worked well on fire ants for us. I've also heard that cornmeal is an organic approach, but I haven't tried it.

Cornmeal is for cornbread and the bottom of homemade pizza; not for fireants.

Please be very careful with the da**ed things. You can loose your immunity to them and go from welts to swellings on parts of your body where you weren't bitten and then into your throat. (I learned this the hard way in Houston.)

Kill them. Forget the green approaches. Kill them thoroughly; it beats trips to the emergency room and going through desensitizing shots.

If the ants were in the ground, I would use Amdro, so I guess I'd use it on the ants in the pots, too.

Sherry

Sherry, what worked for me was one single spritz of household ant and roach spray in each pot. Because I don't spray at all I hesitated even using that, but I needed to work on those roses and like you, I couldn't even pick the pot up without them swarming my arm before I could get it set back down. Just a very small squirt of it was all it took. In a few hours I went back and they were either dead or gone, I was surprised I thought I'd have to treat them again, but that did it. Hopefully the roses didn't soak up much of it and it has as little impact as possible for other critters. Donna

Well, I decided to go ahead and use the Bayer tomorrow. The suggestion made to call Bayer first is a good one, but if they aren't around on weekends those ants are history! I'm betting the container issue is for safety reasons when handling the pots and I have enough sense to be careful. If I had been able to obtain Orthene locally, I would have purchased that for a drench instead.

I do use Amdro on mounds that are in the ground. It works well, but takes a week or so to work. I usually only treat mounds that are "in my way", since fireants, although not native to Florida, are beneficial in killing termites. I just don't want them wherever I happen to hang out.

The darn things actually send out scouts. I always check the area before kneeling on the ground to plant something. Soon, there is usually a few getting into places I don't want them in, biting away. They're infuriating!!!!

Anntn6b, I agree with getting rid of them. I seem to have bad reactions to things, and I sure don't want to have to use the Epistick I have on hand, followed by an emergency visit. It is NOT fun when your throat starts closing up an and you can no longer even swallow saliva.

Cornmeal doesn't work. Tried it.

Sandy