I keep meat tenderizer in my purse just in case I get bit. You make a paste and it supposedly helps disperse the acid, which lessens the reaction. As far as my yard, I won't take any chances. My 2 year old fortunately hasn't met a fire ant yet. He has gone in the beds and came out scratched from a crown of thorns and some bougies, no crying though. He does have bad reactions to mosquitoes though, hence the bug light. Sorry their worth is not as great as my son's. To Laura, I gave birth to a beneficial yesterday!!! I was digging in some dirt and found a lizard egg. I had just put it on my hand to show DH, and he popped right out. It was too cool!!! I put him back where his egg came from, but I still think I can hear him calling me momma =D Have a good day all Shannon

If you know where their nest is, you could put diatomaceous (I probably spelled that wrong) earth on the entrance(s). This will kill any ants that cross it by damaging their exoskeleton. The disadvantages of this are that it will also kill any good guys that come across it, like lady bugs, etc. Also if you don't find all the entrances to the nest, the ants will just start using a different one once they realize that all the ants that go out the east entrance don't come back, or possibly even just dig a new entrance. But it would probably as least slow them down and weaken the colony. You can also use diatomaceous earth as a barrier, such as drawing a circle with it around your garden area, but again this will also kill good guys. Another thought I have, but this is just a wild guess, is that you might have success using a fungicide on your plants. Since the leaf cutter ants don't actually eat the plants, but eat a fungus that they grow on the composting leaves, it might prevent the fungus from growing and eventually starve the colony. For this to work, you'd probably have to treat everything within their range for a while, so it might not be worth the cost & effort. Good luck with fighting these guys. I've never seen them in action, don't think I've ever lived in an area where they are, but I've heard they can be very devastating. Casey

I checked the coverage on the bag when I bought it, and I agree, they don't add much inert ingredients to their product, which would lead people to over-apply it, costing way more than necessary. I am already seeing results, whooppee. Got bitten one time outside today, compared to the covering of bites on my feet the last while every time I ventured out to garden. I didn't know the Amdro has a short shelf life, though. Thanks for alerting me. I hope the product I bought is still effective to do the job. The corner lot here has a very large frontage, but nothing compared to what your friend has to deal with. I can't imagine having that kind of maintenance - those buggers have been out to kill me this year! jeribelle

Mike - Ya spraying them inside is kind of a pain, but I would like to think it's more effective for all the trouble I go through lol. I bring them straight into the bathroom and put them in the shower so clean up isn't so bad. They get sprayed super frequently for the first couple of weeks so anything that survives the initial hose down can't spread to my other plants. Though if your having such success with just spraying them outside, then I think I will incorporate a couple of outdoor sprays into my routine as well. Preventive measures are definitely important :)