Move way up North. Seriously. Unless you can get hold of that predator that they have been testing from South America which is a natural predator on them. Wish I could find out how to get my hands on them.

Supposedly populations of the decapitating phorid fly have been established in Florida and they are growing in numbers. Certain cities with the introduced flies have been monitored by UF and found to have declining fire ant populations. So hopefully it is only a matter of time until these flies spread to other areas and get to work. That said even if the phorid flies come to inhabit all of Florida, there will eventually be a balancing of populations and we will never be 100% free from those nasty stings. And if we try to force the complete eradication of fire ants, all we will likely do is starve out the flies and allow the ants to resurge.

This post was edited by Leekle2ManE on Thu, Sep 11, 14 at 15:46

Nothing natural seems to work. Amdro is the least toxic to humans and the most effective. It takes several days to a week to fully work, but it will get rid of most fire ant colonies by killing the queen.

Fire ants have become rarer and rarer the past few years in west Tampa. However, other ants are becoming abundant - and they come in the house. At least the fire ants never came into the house.

In some areas the fire ants have been displaced by the Big Headed ants, another imported variety. They too sting but not as aggressively as the Imported Fire ant. Let's hope the phorid fly get's established real soon.
There were some growth inhibitors out but the reliability of the baits like Amdro have been the best defense.

I have wiped out entire mounds that were 30 inches across by taking the used coffee grounds that Starbucks gives out for free. You take the grounds and mix them in water so that it is like mud. You cover the mound thick with the mud and cover about 6 inches farther out than you see where the ants are. The ants are repelled by the coffee so they don't tunnel through the grounds to get out. Since they can't feed the nest, the ants die. If you just cover the mound, they all tunnel underneath and come out the side. Since the ants are repelled by the alkaloids in the coffee, you can use it in parts of a garden where you don't want them to go. This kind of thing would be an experiment to see what works and what does not. The grounds are not toxic and have nitrogen, calcium, and I think some manganese in it so you can fertilize your garden and keep ants away at the same time. The coffee will systemically kill aphids, mealy bugs, scales, and spider mites as well, on shorter plants and any of these insects that touch the coffee in any way, are dead meat.

My experience with using anything other than a bait that has spinosid in it is the ants just move the colonies. The one hill may be gone, but have you observed other mounds cropping up nearby?

Yep, that is my experience too. So many 'solutions' just seem to make them move the mound. Ants in general are very industrious and smothering a mound usually just results in another mound 5 ft away. And due to the multi-queen nature of Imported Fire Ants, baiting isn't always completely successful . I don't like broadcasting the bait and prefer to spot-bait the moumds. But if I miss even one small mound, they will quickly start to repopulate. Even if I get every mound, I never get the "Three Months of No Ants!" It is more like one month before ants from neighboring yards or the field behind me start to creep back in. From what I understand, the baits only affect the ants that eat it, but I am not so sure that I am willimg to do weekly patrols of my yard. Instead I go by bites. If I am sitting in my slingback reading a magazine and I get bit by more than one ant in five minutes, then it is time to do a patrol.

My experience with using anything other than a bait that has spinosid in it is the ants just move the colonies. The one hill may be gone, but have you observed other mounds cropping up nearby?

If you are asking me, I have to agree that what you say happens a lot with products like Talstar, which is what I am required to use to be " fire ant certified" here in Florida. On the coffee, as long as I go that extra bit farther, there has been NO moving of the colony. It's like a barrier they absolutely do not move through.

There is a thread over on the Rose Forum that you might find interesting.

It is about those new little bast... well, you get the drift.

Here is a link that might be useful: Enemies of Fla Rose Growing

There is a thread over on the Rose Forum that you might find interesting.

It is about those new little bast... well, you get the drift.

Here is a link that might be useful: Enemies of Fla Rose Growing

The other thing I have found is the fire ants become smart about the ant baits such as Come And Get It and Amdro. After a while the new mounds in the area won't touch it. Mounds way out on the property that hadn't been treated with the baits before will eat it. I'm not sure if this means some of the fire ants survive and are communicating with other ants, and warning them to not to eat the stuff, but it sure seems that way.

When we first purchased our property we had a real problem with fire ants. I could not walk out to hang up laundry and not get bitten badly. They destroyed more trees that I planted than I care to think about. I was ready to give up ever being able to grow any fruit trees. In fact, I was pretty bummed out about not being able to garden in general. I was sick and tired of being bitten.

My husband was ready to hire a blanket treatment of our entire acreage, but I did not want to poison everything.

I decided to wage war on these guys. For the past year I have been treating every mound I find. It has greatly reduced the problem. However, I have to be constantly vigilant or the numbers start getting out of control again. I don't always get out on our whole property to check, but I keep a good watch over the whole area that surrounds our house and barn, and where I want to garden.

Sometimes I use Amdro or Over And Out. They are less toxic near fruit trees or vegetable gardens. Sometimes I use a product that has Bifenthrin in it (I think that's what it's called). It is pretty effective and I don't see a lot of mound moving with it. Acephate just seems to make them move, so I don't use that anymore.

I've noticed that once the mounds have been eliminated, the little Florida ants appear soon after. These are good guys and mind their own business.

It's very discouraging to me that we have to deal with fire ants with this kind of magnitude. I can't set a potted plant directly on the ground for very long without the fire ants underground somehow knowing it's there and infesting it. Same thing with bags of potting soil. However, with vigilance I've been able to make a controlled area much more comfortable for gardening and hopefully with time won't be as much of a problem.

We also set up a bug zapper light. I worry about killing beneficials with it, but an acquaintance I know who raises sheep swears it cut down on the mounds she has. Her poor sheep were getting bitten badly. When the ants swarm at night to mate a good share of them may likely get zapped. We had our zapper off for a couple of months and this past week I have had to kill many, many mounds again. So maybe the zapper helps.