Jane, hate to tell you this but the most effective fire ant control most of us have found is Amdro. If you can find the hill or entrance to the nest, encircle the entrance about 8 to 10 inches out. Don't put it on top of the hill as the ants will simply remove it. It is bait (reminds me of wheat germ) and it doesn't take much at all. If you apply it, say mid-morning today, by the same time tomorrow, all of the bait will be gone and you should see little or no activity around the nest.
Since it is a dry bait it should have no effect on bees or butterflies. Check it out at Ace or other big box store, read the lable and see if it is something you can live with.

I have found Termidore SC to be the best. Unfortunately many other any killers such as Amdro can be sensed by the colony and they just move.

A few sprays of this over the mound and it wipes them out. I have essentially eliminated fire ants from my 3/4 acre plot. After a while I start getting the small little single hole mini-mounds and I touch up with Termidore SC. Gone.

Read the label. It is highly toxic to dogs and don't use around food crops.

I used Safer brand Diatamacious Powder with Bait in my veggie garden. I sprinkled it all over and it worked for me. If it gets wet it's not any good. They sell it at Lowes.

I use a stuff called Hi-Yield - Lawn, Garden, pet and Livestock insect control I get it from ACE. It seems to work on killing them when we spray the active mounds. I have three dogs, so I have to be careful on what I put on the ground.

I also use Amdro and have found it to be the most effective and safe. I have dogs, too, so didn't want harmful chemicals, but they walk right through the mounds and I have to pull ants off their legs. One laid down on a mound last week. It's hard to find the mounds if they're in bark mulch, as it can hide the tell-tale sand piles. My neighbor does all her gardening in white rubber boots so she can easily see the ants, hopefully before they make it to the top.

My friend used to pour boiling water on the mound. Not sure how effective that would be. I've got to do something about mine soon. I found more out front today.

I've tried boiling water. It's a very short term solution.

I also use Termidor SC.......

It's only approved as an outdoor DRENCH ......so if you use a pump sprayer REMOVE THE NOZZLE to treat the mounds

Thanks everyone. I will not use poison, I have a cat that loves to roll in the pine bark and hangs out with me when I work in the yard.

My flower beds are planted very tight to discourage weeds but many flowers have finished and weeds filled in the spaces.

I like the idea of white boots and the Diatamacious Earth. Will see if I can find it. I just thought they liked dry, sandy soil and thought the mulch would discourage them. I guess I was wrong.

Boy of boy, my feet got sooo bitten, I can't put shoes on. I have to walk around in flip-flops and will not take the chance and return to that bed. Once I find some white boots, long pants, socks, etc. I'll venture back.

Thanks again,
Jane

when you get bit by anything including fire ants put ammonia on it. It has a chemical reaction to the venom and takes the itch away.

When I get bit I dab ammonia on the bites. Most times it stops the hurt and they don't swell up.

You could try this organic recipe (I'm having to adlib since I can't seem to find the exact note for this):

Starting boiling about two cups of water, add half a cup of white sugar, a tablespoon of honey and two tablespoons of borax. Put dabs of the mixture into old milk jug lids and put them near the mounds. The ants should injest the mixture and take it back to the mound where it will get passed to workers and the queen, eventually killing the hive. It won't work in one application, so expect to rebait every other day.

Now, here is the kicker: This completely 100% Organic ant bait is more dangerous to dogs, cats and any other critters that are attracted to the sweet mixture than your standard Amdro ant bait. So you will want to cage it so that only the ants can get to it. I understand the desire to do things the safe way, I am close to 98% chemical free in my practices, but in some cases, fire ants being one, chemical is safer and more effective than organic. Like the suggestion with the borax mixture, when I use amdro to bait mounds, I cover the bait with a pot, a piece of wood or some other item, simply to make sure the abundant birds that visit my yard don't mistake it for feed. I'm not too worried about other critters as my Springer Spaniel who is an awesome tracker/sniffer and gets easily distracted by any new/strange scent has never shown a bit of interest in the baited areas.

I'd stay away from diatomaceous earth. It'll more likely kill all the worms in the soil, they have much softer bodies that are easily pierced by it.

Soapy water seems to work for me - insecticidal soap will kill ants. & I was advised by an exterminator to use a bucket of soapy water on the mounds, after breaking them open w/ a very long stick. & since we do not have a dishwasher I also empty the dishpan on my flower beds daily.

Just to update. I couldn't figure out where the mounds were. I was so afraid of getting bit again, I finally bought a small container of Amdro. I didn't want to do this, but I didn't know what else to do. I have a lot of flowers and shrubs and was afraid hot water would kill everything. I sprinkled a little bit around a small area where I think I got bit, but I'm not positive.

This bed is large and deep and I had been pulling weeds and pruning leaving a mess as I worked. I had planned to rake it out when finished, but after getting attacked, I ran and was afraid to go back. So somewhere under all the debris must be the hills, but I wasn't positive. I'm still afraid to go back in to clean up so hope all the weeds just rot away.

I still have blisters all over my feet and legs. How long does it take for these bites to go away?

Thanks again for all the advice.

Jane

Growing up in the South, I was frequently bitten by these annoying buggers. I don't think I ever had a bite last longer than 3 or 4 days. My mother would always fuss at me not to scratch for fear of puncturing the blisters and spreading the 'poison', but I felt like draining the fluids from the blisters and soaking it up with a tissue helped. Today when I get bit, it barely affects me. The only thing getting bit does now is trigger a knee jerk (literally) where I stamp my feet to daze the ants and knock them off.

Scratching bites open can lead to infection. I use straight tea tree oil on bites & if they do get infected, antibiotic ointment should help.

When they get itchy, I try to scratch near & around them, not directly on them.

Jane, maybe if you reach into the bed with a long rake you can rake those dead weeds out w/o getting near the ant-mounds, then the weeds won't set seeds or rejuvenate or sprout... I keep an old laundry basket near-by and throw weeds in it when working in the beds, also I have some pieces of roofing shingles I throw on a weed, it suffocates it and kills it without having to try and reach in under the plant...if the shingle is too obvious I pull some mulch on it to hide it......works for me, LOL, sally