For Fireants...We save the juice from pickles and peppers and olives as well as spoiled milk and fill the containers to the brim with water...then pour on the mounds near the house. I don't know if it kills them, but they don't make a hill there for a long time after and it does not kill the grass etc.

As for other things....I have had some success with Terro (Borax Baits that can be hidden from the animals...find at Walmart)....and 7 Dust. I barely dust until the critters go away. If you read the label, you can even treat animals for fleas with 7 Dust. So...yes it is a chemical, but it is better than other things.

And a really weird thing my dad "says" works is to take a shovelful of one fireant pile and put it into another pile...that the 2 tribes kill each other off in a war...couldn't hurt to try.

Chiggers..I am really allergic to them....they hang out in dry leaves (oak and pine) and Spanish moss...so if you have piles of that around, get rid of it. Luckily I don't have a chigger problem at home...just have gotten bit on vacation.

HTH

tam

Chiggers like to get under places where your cloths are snug. Mama used to say that was so they had a place to kick off from as they dug in. Lol.. Maybe looser clothes will help. The cure from my childhood is to paint the spots with clear nail polish.

As for your (our) other problem, I have gotten some control with diatomaceous earth. It can be had cheaply in 50 pound bags from some feed stores. DE has to be reapplied and does not work as well after getting wet. Be very careful not to breathe it in. You will have a choking fit, but it is not poisonous.

We had the very bad experience of going through a fire ant swarm. They will swarm like bees and termites do. The young fly and their bites are just as bad. (Not just your ankles, but down your shirt, too! Ouch!) We doused the stump where they were swarming from with DE and they were immediately knocked down. Those that touched the DE were unable to fly and died very soon.

Diatoms are microscopic sea plankton and their shells were deposited over the eons. It works by getting into and under the skins or shells of the pest and slicing and dicing them up. Like a mass of microscopic razors. The pests dehydrate and die from the damage.

After many years of dealing with them, I have given in and I do use the pesticides near the house. I try to make my peace with the mounds that are farther out and am careful to avoid them.

DE is a very helpful pest control product for many other plant pests, but it will harm beneficials, too, so use judiciously, please. It can be applied with a puffer applicator. I use a coffee can with holes punched in the plastic lid. It is talc like in feel and appearance.

Also... I was told by a Florida strawberry farmer years ago that human urine on the mound will cause them to pack up and move away. But, that can be a job of work for my half of the population.

I knew a family once that swore that taking a spoonful of vinegar before any outing or camping would deter chiggers from biting them, and it seemed to work. It won't hurt you, and you could give it a try. It supposedly makes you taste differently and they don't bite you. When we were camping, they would all line up and take one spoonful each morning. (You might rinse your mouth out afterward if you try this trick. Vinegar is hard on tooth enamel.)

I've used my "flamethrower" on ant mounds before, but it only kills the ones on the surface. However if you kick open the mound you can quickly roast a whole bunch of them. I wouldn't recommend that method for doing very many mounds, though. I've tried boiling water on them, and it has worked on small mounds. I don't think it would work on larger ones.

Good luck!

Marcia

I find that chiggers or red bugs like tall grasses. Another thing is to not sit on a log or a concret step or wall. The clear finger nail polish is your best bet to rid the itch.

As for fire ants, get some Amdro or the one by Bayer. Your animals will learn quick to stay away from a mound.

Welcome to Florida!

The anecdotal systems of ant removal might work for a short period of time but not permanently .
The only way to truly kill ants is to kill the Queen and her colony living underground . The ones we see on the surface are just scout ants .
Ant bait that is taken to the colony and Queen and then fed to the entire group is the most effective treatment .
from U of F :
" The ideal bait contains a slow-acting, non-repellent toxicant that is incorporated into a preferred food substrate. There are many types of baits on the market. Some baits contain:

Insect growth regulators that primarily impact brood production and development (Extinguish, Award, Distance, etc.)

Metabolic inhibitors that primarily kill the foraging workers, the brood and queen (Amdro, Combat, etc.) "

Here is a link that might be useful: Ant Control

It is true that in order to totally destroy the mound, you must kill the queen, however, Amdro does not work at all on my ant mounds any more. Hasn't for at least the last two houses we've lived in. They know what it is and they don't touch it. They just move the mound over about 2' and keep on trucking.

The only thing I've found that truly kills them all (rather than just torching the ones on the surface) is a liquid product that attaches to your hose. It floods down deep into the mound if you push the nozzle into the hill, and they disappear. Completely. But I didn't mention it earlier as Mimulus specifically asked for non-toxic ideas to help control the mounds. That's usually what I prefer to do, too, though when driven to desperation, I resort to this particular fire ant insecticide. (If you would like the name, I'll go check the bottle. Can't remember right now.)

Marcia

Noone here has mentioned cornmeal. I am not sure if it works for fire ants, but it worked in my garden for the small ants there, who were making raised bed trails all over the place, and farming aphids. I sprinkled cornmeal all over their nests, and the other nests out in the yard as well, because I heard that cornmeal will be the last meal an ant eats, more or less. That it will expand in their stomachs after they drink water, and that will be "it" for any ants who eat it, and they carry it back to the nest to feed the queen, so that kills the colony. When I first sprinkled the cornmeal (it works best in dry conditions, I heard), I noticed that ants Immediately started grabbing it up, and carrying it around, I suppose back to the nest. There are about ninety percent less ants in my garden, and I did that a week ago. Then, yesterday I put more cornmeal, to hopefully get rid of more of them, as the old cornmeal disappeared. Anyone else have experience with this non toxic, cheap method of killing ants?

Thanks for all the responses!

Marcia, yes I would definitely like to know the name of the stuff you use with the hose!

I didn't mention it but the Amdro didn't seem to be working well the last time I used it - only seemed to kill about half of them and then when I put a bit more on the remaining ones it only killed some of them too.

I did find that spraying Neem Oil on my shoes and above my socks seemed to keep the chiggers from biting (most of the time). Neem Oil is an extract from a tree, is non-toxic to humans, pets and most things except small insects like mites, aphids, thrips, etc. (it's in toothpaste, mouthwash, skin cream) It is about the only thing I use now for pest control on my plants - works great. It's also a fungicide and anti-bacterial so it works great for all the problems of Roses! There are several products that have Neem Oil in them - at Home Depot get Fungicide 3 in 1 by Garden Safe/Schultz (comes in a less expensive concentrate too), also Rose Defense and I think Green Light.

Do the big black ants bite too? I also have the tiny black ones in some places.

The damn fire ants and mosquitos have me so edgy that I've developed an instant swat and kill response the second I feel anything on my skin. Probably look like a crazy person flailing my arms around all the time!

Be aware that almost without exception, all medicines come from something 'natural'
and any 'natural' product that has medicinal properties
can also have side effects

including Neem oil

"Potential Neem Side Effects in Children
Neem seems to be fairly toxic to children. There have reports of very serious, sometimes immediate neem side effects in children. These reported side effects include:
Vomiting
Loose stools
Drowsiness
Overly acidic blood
Anemia
High levels of white blood cells
Seizures
Loss of consciousness
Coma
Swelling in the brain
Loss of life."

" Many people assume that neem is automatically free of side effects because it is a "natural" product. However, it is reasonable to assume that any natural product with medicinal properties is capable of causing side effects. Neem side effects can be especially dangerous in children."

"Possible Side Effects of Neem
A few clinical studies have reported side effects with neem. These possible side effects included:
Low or no urine production (which may be a sign of kidney damage)
Kidney damage
Liver damage
Yellow skin (jaundice), which may be a sign of liver damage
Destruction of red blood cells
Allergic reaction, which may cause symptoms such as:
A rash or hives
Itching
Swelling of the mouth or throat
Wheezing
Difficulty breathing."

That said, I've had exceptionally good luck eliminating fire ants with any of the baits that contain spinosad.

Here is a link that might be useful: Neem side effects

You can take out fire ants in selected spots close to your home or a small yard by boiling a couple large pots of water and dumping it directly onto the mound. It will take them out. But not effective of course for large coverage.
Chiggers don't like damp stuff. They excel this time of year with dry climate and low humidity. Breeding in more ground debris which adds up as plants die back or are dormant in the winter.
Chiggers always like dry hanging spanish moss and after a wind event when the yard is covered with downed moss the chigger problem can be worse. Populations can really ballon in drier drought times (late winter - spring).
Chiggers are bad problems for pets as well as humans. Rake, sweep, mow, trim back, remove dead foliage and hose down areas you can't if possible getting all the debris moist. This will slow chigger breeding down.
Chiggers and no-sea-`um sand fleas are awful.
Flea's like the drier warming days of late winter & early spring when air humidity is high they hatch, but they don't like damp surroundings (wet feet). Outside they peak in mid spring however summer wetness brings numbers back down.

I'm in the last (hopefully) stage of homebuilding - final land grading in approximately 2 weeks. I can't use boiling water on the fireants I've seen as we are still without power and I don't want to use any chemicals as we have 2 gopher tortoises on our property.

smart2surf, I'm trying your method of using cornmeal and yesterday was my first "food-distribution" event. Can you please update on your ant population so far? It's been 2 weeks since you started? Have you re-sprinkled again since your 2nd one? Do you sprinkle in all over or just on the ant-trail/mount?

I'm desperately trying to rid them before sodding so that they don't multiply like crazy. All further advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Instant grits work quite well to get rid of fire ants, too. That's the local non-toxic treatment we were told about when we moved here last fall (we live in north Texas), and so far we've used it on two fire ant nests in our yard and it's worked perfectly both times. You apply the instant grits dry, all over the mound, and over a period of days the ants take it in and eat it. After a week or two (it does take time), the ants will be dead and the nest will collapse.

I have found orothene, a white powder, sprinkle a little bit and they take the poision into the nest on their feet.
Afer 25 years best I have found.Univ Of Fla. in Ft Pierce also sells wasps that lay eggs in the ants head and when the pupae of the wasp mature the fire ants head explodes.
I would like to be on a mico evel to see that.
otherwise give up you live in Flrida.

Dear Smallfern, I just saw your post now. My ant population has markedly Decreased, although there are some ants still in the garden. And, yes, I did the treatment two or three times. I think it would be safe and cheap to do it as often as you like! I plan to do it again, since I noticed the majority of ant mounds disappeared, but a few remain, and out in the yard there are still some. If I had fire ants, I would do it two or three times a week, for a month or so. I sprinkled just on the mounds, but I have read elsewhere that cornmeal is good for the garden (or instant grits) and helps with diseases, so maybe this time, I will sprinkle all over.

The person that does our lawn fertilization said you must be careful not to disturb the mound when you put anything on it or it won't work. The ants will know something is up. She said Ampro should work. Also if there is a hole at the top of the mound, they are pyramid ants and you want those because they are fire ant enemies.

Keep in mind when using boiling water or any chemical, that fire ants always build back doors into their mounds. Most of these escape tunnels are between 2 and 3 feet from the same mound. They'll be small so might not easily see them, even if you are looking. When using anything on the mound, start at least 3 feet out and kind of spiral in to the main spot. That way you should catch everything.

Often when people say the ants just moved a few feet over, its because you've only destroyed the main entrance and now they are building up one of the escape routes to become the main mound.

Kate
("Know your enemy" Sun Tsu)