Well, I never had good luck with the boiling water and sure gave it my best try. I'd find the dead bodies neatly piled up on top of the hive and the hive back in business the next day.

If you have them in the garden, no doubt you keep it fairly well watered. The nemotodes are probably your best line of long-term defense along with diotomaceous earth on the outside of the hive. The special nemotodes attack only the baby ants but as long as they are getting some moisture in the soil, they can continue to do their job. They don't like dry conditions. The diatomaceous earth should work on eliminating the adults. Dia earth takes a while, must be reapplied after rains or watering, but I am a strong believer in it.

I put used coffee grinds in the vegetable garden. Works just fine.

Mike

I just started a veggie garden my child and I was pulling out the weeds and we was eat up by fire ants.I have read all this good advice on how to kill fire ants,we are going to try diatomaceous wish us luck and thank you.

Trish M

Someone here posted to put a 5 gal bucket over the mound, let it build up inside, carefully remove the bucket and then drench with molasses. I had dh cut the bottom off a 5 gal bucket and am going to try that, with the lid on. Then I don't have to disturb them any by removing the bucket, just take off the lid & fill with the molasses stuff.

On impulse, I put a thick layer of spearmint trimmings on top of a mound the other day.

By the time the spearmint shriveled & turned brown, the mound was gone.

Coffee grinds are my weapon as well. Nothing is easier in my opinion.

Mike

I have a similar problem I can't seem to get them to leave. However, a good cure for the bites is a paste made from apple cider vinegar and baking soda. You won't even know you been biten. Just apply it knock it off when dry and reapply.

How would I use the white sugar? Just sprinkle it on the garden?

This is my first vegetable garden and I go out every morning (and afternoon and evening) to look at my garden. This morning I went out and these ants started stinging my feet. I was just standing there and they attacked.

I realized they must be fireants. I've never seen them before being from another part of the country where they aren't common. And I have to concur that they are really evil little things.

I am really panicked that they are going to get in my house so I'd like to try sprinkling the sugar on the garden tonight. Will it hurt my veggies at all and how much sugar do I use?

Welcome to Texas! I too was welcomed here by a fire ant mound which attacked my 3 year old (who just froze in place and screamed as they covered her legs). By the time I figured out why she was screaming, she had hundreds of welts and I had no idea how to treat them. I put her in a cold bath with ice cubes and called the doctor. For the next 10 years we all wore cowboy boots to go outside :-).

I've never tried sugar but I plan to after reading this! I imagine you just sprinkle it around like you are sowing grass seed and I doubt it could do any harm to your veggies.

A word of caution for anyone using Diatomaceous earth, please be very careful to not breath any in (imagine millions of tiny razor blades entering your lungs). Likewise, keep it away from children.

I did have a lot of fire ants in my vegetable garden, but not since I used Diatomaceous earth and white sugar. I don't know which one worked, but we have no more fire ant problems. These ants had been eating our peas and okra. We would get ant stings picking the peas. Several months ago I bought 250 pounds of Diatomaceous earth for our scorpion problem. It is the food grade type in 50 pound bags. It kills scorpions when they walk through it and I noticed it kill just about all insects sooner or later. I did use a lot on the peas and okra since we have a lot. I have about 30 okra plants and 2 rows about 20 foot long each of peas so I must have used 10 pounds. I put a few cups of sugar around the base of the okra plants. It only took 24 hours for the ant to totally disappear from the garden.

fire ants are not evil, especially not compared to some of yall's comments.

how would you feel if someone stepped on and destroyed your home? you would rush out and try to save your loved ones and bite the trespasser to get him to stay away.

ok, but i'm a hypocrite since they did bite my little girl, I used sugar and they have relocated, lol.

I would say they need to build their home elsewhere, not on MY property.

I've been noticing a lot of fire ants lately, and they find the cat food as soon as the cat walks away. They seldom go after the Amdro anymore either.

So I have been putting a couple of pieces of cat food (dry) on a rock or something near the ant mound, and surround it with Amdro. They are attracted by the cat food and take all the Amdro as well. Next day, no fire ants.

Fire ants are killed by bait, which is sprinkled on the hills and then they take it into the ground and wipe out the whole colony. It's not used on plants and has no effect on them or their fruit. Bait is the only thing I've found that will get rid of them. I've got ant bites on both my ankles because I didn't check before I went out to till a few days ago.

After reading this thread a few weeks ago, and facing a problem of ants in my raised bed, I called my local Starbucks, and they had a fresh bag of grounds for me. They even loaded my car for me, about 50 lbs. I sprinkled most of it on my 4'x8' bed, and they seemed to go away, but today as I planted some marigolds, they swarmed again from the same spot. Now I'm off to try the sugar, and tomorrow I'll get some diatomaceous earth. ARGH. I'm bummed the coffee didn't work, but I sure was awake while spreading the grounds and tilling it in!

Got this in my email from Howard Garrett's weekly newsletter:

The fire ant control program that I have recommended for years and many people have used with great success is as follows:

1. Apply dry molasses at 20 lbs. per 1000 square feet. This single step eliminates the pest completely in most cases.

2. Drench problem mounds with the Mound Drench formula - orange oil, molasses and compost tea. Commercial products are available.

3. Apply beneficial nematodes. These beneficial worms also help control termites, grubs, fleas, ticks and other soil inhabiting pests.

More detailed info on fire ant control can be found here:

Here is a link that might be useful: Fire Ant Control

I have mounds that pop up periodically in my veggie beds. I'm trying to go completely organic and this year have been using Howard Garrett's fire ant mound drench recipe (I use 2 oz each of molasses, orange oil, compost tea in 1 1/2 gallons of water). It works really well for me. Two notes of caution about it, however. First, the earthworms don't seem to like it. I stand over it for about ten minutes and hand pick the earthworms that surface so I can relocate them (Not sure whether they make it after that or not). Second, it will burn the foliage of your plants pretty bad. Seedlings are pretty much goners if you pour it on them. Bigger plants will survive, but if they're ready to harvest you might as well before you pour it. I haven't tried it around root veggies, so I'm not sure what it does to them.

Also, it smells really nice.

Try Club Soda, it worked for me. I was surprised and it kept the mound from splitting. A friend had told me to use 1 liter of club soda or urine. I opted for club soda for obvious reasons.

My raised-bed vegetable garden (and I) fell victim to fire ants yesterday. They got me good while I was on my hands and needs working with some transplants. After doing an abstract dance in my backyard I rushed inside and got on the internet with vengeance on my mind. I found this great thread and loved the idea of exploding fire ants! LOL. After further research I did confirm it is the fact that the grits go rancid that drives the ants away and it does not kill them (which I gleefully admit I desired).

I found this great article on the topic of spinosad (pronounced spin-OH-sid). It mentions the fact that fire ants avoid rancid food and also the orange oil as a direct method to take on ant mounds.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040510014001.htm

I also found a good link from Dow Agrosiences on the organic pesticide: http://www.dowagro.com/turf/prod/spinosad.htm

Spinosad is very interesting and new to the market and get this... it is "derived from a naturally occurring soil dwelling bacterium called Saccharopolyspora spinosa, a rare actinomycete reportedly collected from soil in an abandoned rum distillery on a Caribbean Island in 1982 by a scientist on vacation!" And there you have it; vacations are good for gardening.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinosad

I went to the local feed and seed store and bought some Spinosad and applied it this morning, with glee I might add. I'll post the results later.

-G0rdo

A quick fix is soapy water they dehydrate when their waxy coating washes off in a matter of seconds.

aspartame artificial sweetener works like a charm and it's cheap! Just buy the packets in the box in the baking isle and sprinkle it on. Not sure what it does, but we assume they eat it and it just wipes them out in no time.

I tried corn meal yesterday, and while I don't know if the mold thing is working yet, I do know they are gathering it. I picked up a couple of rocks today and there were little collections of corn meal under them.

Last year my grandson step in a mound of fire ants and minutes later he was swollen all over, we carried him to the hospital and the doctor said if he had been any later getting there he would have died,I am also allerige to stings,so please watch small childern around them and pets, a freind had them to get in to her dog house and bite her dog to death , these little buggers are mean,I feed them grits, I carry a small bag out when walking my little dog and pour it on mounds that I find, I HATE these monsters,my hubsand sprays them two or three times each year but we still find little mounds of them between spraying so I use the gris, I don't think anything really rids you of them,if you know of something email me.

Beneficial nematodes WILL get rid of them - but you must buy them from a reputable source. They must get them from the refrigerator when you buy them because if they are on the shelf, they will be dead, they must be kept cold. You must follow the directions for application to your yard carefully. Also, you must water your yard every week or 10 days, if it does not rain, because the nemtodes will die if the soil becomes completely dried out. I have used them on my yard for the past 10 years, and I have never seen any fire ants in my yard with one caveat. I found them living in the little balls that form on my Red Oak tree. Those fire ants are crafty little buggers! But I have NO mounds, and NO ants in the ground in my yard. Here is some information on beneficial nematodes.

Beneficial Nematodes - Organic Insect Control
Beneficial nematodes are underground pest hunters that control over 250 different species of insects that spend some part of their lives underground. They are a very efficient organic insect control method and kill most insects before they become adults. This includes lots of common lawn and garden pests such as grubs, fleas, mole crickets, japanese beetles and weevils.

Beneficial Nematodes - Just what are they?
The beneficial nematode is a small microsopic worm that lives below the soil. It is generally clear or white in color and has no segments like earthworms do. There are over 20,000 different kinds of nematodes that live in the soil and a small handful of dirt will generally contain thousands of them. Nematodes are considered parasites and can affect a number of different plants and animals. Some species of nematodes are considered pests, but these are not the same species of beneficial nematodes used to control insects.

How effective are nematodes as natural predators?
When a beneficial nematode attacks an insect larvae or grub it enters the body of its host. Generally within 48 hours that host insect will either die, be physically altered or unable to produce. The Steinernema and Heterorhabditis strains of nematode carry a bacteria that generally kills its host insect in quick fashion. The beneficial nematode then moves onto another host.

What sort of conditions does it require?
Beneficial nematodes live in almost any soil, but they prefer moist soil

rowdysmom, I am encouraged to hear that the nematodes really work in controlling the fire ants. I learned that recently from a guy who has a lawn care business and uses organics. I just applied them for the first time a couple weeks ago and am waiting to see if it makes a difference in the number of fire ants.

Hi Texann! It WILL make a difference, I promise. It will take about a month, if I remember correctly back to the first time I applied them (~10-12 years ago). You may still find them snarking around like I did, up in my Red Oak tree living in the little balls. Who would have thought they would do that! I just moved to a home on a half acre. I haven't applied them yet to my new yard (I'm waiting till my vacations are over for the summer) so I am fighting them left and right with diatamaceous earth, boiling water and the like. I cannot wait to get the beneficial nematodes on my yard so I can stop.

I have been using fire-ant poison with some results, but recently i had some old Clorox, so added about a cup full on top of the poison. I figured the smell would irritate them, and, it has worked a lot better than i figured it would!

So glad I found this thread! I am on an acre in NW Louisiana and we have fought fire ants the entire time we've been here :( My husband has been pouring boiling water on any mounds we find and it does work (though I do think they just relocate), but this is my first time ever having a vegetable garden (yay, me!!) and I'm doing raised beds. This morning while I was out watering and poking around I noticed a crap load of ants in my beds! At first, I just saw some randomly crawling on the sides of the beds, not in any sort of organized line leading to anything, then I saw a whole slew of them around my plants (mostly around my sweet peppers. do you think they like sweet peppers more?) Do they actually harm the plants, or are they just a nuisance to the gardener?
I'm not going to pour boiling water around my plants, so after reading through this entire thread, I think I will try the least expensive and easiest method: SUGAR! I am assuming that I should just sprinkle it all over the bed? I am also assuming that I should do it when the soil is dry, so as not to 'melt' the sugar? Any thoughts?

I like the boiling water idea. I'm afraid of everything because my chickens might eat it and die. Yes, this is a bit weird but when I have almost finished my beer, I dump the rest all over an ant bed. Don't know though if it actually kills the little creeps or if they just move out but they're gone the next day. Wonder if boiling water would hurt roots though. hmmm

The best contact system I find is water with a few drops of dish soap, washes of their waxy protection and they die there and then.

Good idea Wally...I'll try that!

I know spinosad works but now want to try sugar. Another option for keeping ants off plants like okra, citrus etc. is tangle foot. I like to use the flagging tape and rap the trunk of the tree with it then spread the tangle foot on the flagging tape. It wont kill the ants but keeps them from farming the aphids on the plants and gives the lady bugs a chance to eat them. That plus spinosad is winning recipe for me. You have to watch overspray on Spinosad because reguardless of what it says it does kill beneficals. I spray it to help control Thrips on my blueberry plants and after spraying there are no lady bugs or lacewings to be found. Kills them all!!! Be cautious how you use it.

I found this site while looking for a way to get rid of fire ants who have decided to enter the electrical system on my water well and are shutting my water off daily. I really wish the grits worked, because I'm having to fight red wasps as well as fire ants in the same location. There would be some justice in watching the fire ants blow up. I'm going to try the Green Light stuff as soon as I can get to a home improvement store. I've used several types of fire ant killer and I've had no success so far. I'm glad to have some advice on a more Eco-friendly way to combat these things. My 4 year old and I have been stung many times. We live on an acre of land in NW Louisiana and we deal with the fire ants every time we go outside. I wanted to check a small tree the other day to see if the dirt around it was moist and put my fingers down around the base of the small tree where I couldn't see because the grass had grown up a bit, pulled my hand out and it was covered in fire ants. I couldn't even see a mound! I know I can't put anything like orange oil on my water wells electrical points, but I hope putting something around the base will work. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Sheila, our HVAC guy told us to get a cattle ear tag from the feed store and tie it inside the a/c unit somewhere and it will keep out fire ants. If there is any space inside your electric housing, you might try that too.

White sugar is what I'd like to try. I am starting a Lasagne Garden and have lots of fire ants in the area. Do I just put it on the top of the garden or should I also put it in the layers? THANKS!

Simple Dollar Store "Lemon" Dish soap and a hose end sprayer
Cover every square inch of ground when you spray.
If you have trees,hit the bark as high as you can reach.
Adding Lemon scented ammonia(1c ea equal parts in 20g sprayer) to the mix is a mosquito's worst nightmare.
aka:Buzz Buster Lemonade
You must spray 3 times a week for effective eradication after rainy periods.

Grits DO WORK if you use the "INSTANT" grits,you must use the instant version.
The ants eat,the moisture inside them expands the grain faster then they can digest.
Im sure its a painful death,but they do not explode.

This post was edited by TNKS on Sat, Feb 8, 14 at 15:50

Sounds good to me. Especially like getting rid of mosquitos too!

I haven't tried it yet but my favorite way of getting rid of them is to pour molten aluminum (from cans or whatever) on them. You have the satisfaction of knowing they are definitely dead plus you get a nice commemorative statue of their obliteration.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGJ2jMZ-gaI

coffee grounds work very well. In addition they repel snails, slugs and many other pests in your garden. Best part is they are free from Starbucks

I laughed so hard when I saw the exploding ants thingy XDD

I was relieved when I saw this thread because we have really bad fire ants in our garden (especially where we're growing the cucumbers) and we need pest control very badly. Pests stole our strawberries, onions, and cucumbers last year. Also, they started to mess with our tomatoes (our best crop) so we got some weird tomatoes!! I once went to pick the tomatoes and found 4 stuck together!! What a story..

In browsing articles I read all the above a few days back. Yesterday I transferred a potted bush from a pot to the ground. Ouch..I was bit by ants. I immediatly ran cold water over my knee. Then I went and got sugar and sprinkled on infested area. Went back to attend to my itchy knee with baking soda and water patches. Eased up the itch and swelling right away. When I went back to garden, didn't see ants. Proceeded to finish planting with no further issues. Will check out garden today to see if there is any sign of ants.

After trying for 2 and a half years to vegetable garden here in South Florida, I found out quite early that I was really at war with fire-ants instead. It didn't matter what vegetable it was, as all of the vegetable plants were covered over with these curious and nasty insects. What was insult over injury, was the fact that they would eat your vegetables, just before they ripened! You weren't even able to enjoy any of your hard earned efforts!! I had tried all of the above methods of control, with only having a small success with vinegar, but vinegar would also kill plants, so you had to be extra careful. I finally had to quit using vinegar. Finally I found my way to success..., when I read that using "ground cinnamon" straight out of my spice rack would work. By this time, I was a very wary in trying out new natural products, but it was inexpensive and on hand, so what did I have to loose? Well, was I ever so immediately surprised and stunned to see, that where ever I found ants, I would sprinkle a small amount of the spice "ground cinnamon," over them and it immediately repelled them!!! It was if they were afraid of it!! Well, I then began to sprinkle my head off with this spice, and the ants seemed to just run away and disappear!! It does repel the fire-ants! Fantastic! I am finally able to sprinkle some around each vegetable plant and the ants will stay away!! In potted plants, I lightly sprinkle directly into the pot. I would also recommend that you repeat your applications after a rain storm for best results!! :) Although this is still an experimental procedure, it really does seem to be working for me. My garden has now become enjoyable again! I sincerely hope that if you try this method, that you also reap such great rewards, as I have!!! I will continue to recheck the treated areas each day to see if the ants come back, but so far after eight (8) days I have no ants in those same areas, since applying the cinnamon! On the other hand, I just applied some cinnamon to an active fire-ant mound and will have to watch it to see the future results. But the vegetable garden seems to now be under control, at long last!

Only sure way I know of eliminating fire ants from a garden is to move the garden 200 miles north. :)

When I get them in a part of the garden I just can't avoid, I will urinate on the mounds until the ants get too mad and then they move away. Takes about a week.

Someone said that they weren't beneficial .. this isn't entirely accurate. Their nuisance far outweighs their minor beneficial factor, but they do help turn the soil and their waste and detritus adds nitrogen back in. Like all ants, they have a surprising amount of biomass that they generate. Pound for pound, it's as soil nutritive as burying a dead fish.

Darn things are just too aggressive to leave there though. And they spread. I have trouble with them getting into my okra and then stinging me when I go to harvest.

Soapy water will kill everyone it comes in contact with. At least they will keep moving until they are out of your garden.

I agree with the DE comment at $10 for 25 pounds I would till it into the soil at about one bag per 100 square feet.

You could try this if you are brave. It's a no nonsense approach we have used for ants and ground hornets, and you have to be careful. With two people a shovel, gasoline or used motor oil mixed with gas and some matches in hand: douse the hill, sink the shovel and turn over the soil/nest, douse again and step back, then toss the lit match on the nest. As it dies down, you may want to turn the soil/nest again to keep it flaming. Next day, no more little beasties.

I'm so glad I found this thread. We have about 5-6 mounds in a very small front yard only at our new house. The chemical fire ant killer my husband used 3 times since August 6th isn't doing much of anything that we can tell. I think we'll try the DE route, and maybe add some sugar into the mix as well. Hope it works for us.

kayla9536, how is the cinnamon working out? I tried boiling water, doesn't get them all...i hate chemicals.

I create "ant wars" between different mounds and it really works. I use a 5 gallon bucket with a lid (a must have). First I put a shovel full of the mound in the bucket, quickly close the lid and dump it as far away as possible, or poison that batch. I like to remove as much mound as possible before creating a war. Then find a mound at least 40 feet away and transport in the closed bucket a big shovel full to the prior mound. Bang bucket on the ground to knock climbing ants into the bucket dirt, dump, grab a shovel full of the prior mound and dump on the second mound. I swear by the next morning there isn't an ant in either place. Be fast, wear rubber boots and very careful, they want to war with you also. Good luck!

In addition to the methods I listed in my first post, boiling water DOES work for me. I just had a large colony in an unused side of a raised bed. We opened up the mound with a shovel, poured boiling water in and then checked it out the next week. I expected to have to repeat the process, but we dug through the bed and found no fire ants. I've used boiling water in the past, but have had to repeat the application. Obviously, if I had planted on that side of the bed, boiling water would have killed everything, but it does work.