I just posted something about this! I may sound like a shill for this product, but I have had really good luck with a product called "Conserve" by Green Light. It contains Spinosad, a bacterium that paralyzes the nervous systems of the fire ants and does not harm people, animals, or beneficial insects.

It's a broadcast bait; I've found it at Lowes but not at Home Depot.

Here is a link that might be useful: More info on Spinosad

beneficial nematodes should be ready pretty soon. baby fire ants are their favorite treat!

the orange oil can hurt some plants, I am using coffee grounds in the pots with mixed success

missinformation--thanks, I had some beneficial nematodes and sprayed them everywhere. Hopefully I'll see some change.

rebecca, I'll check out the spinosad next time I'm at a nursery. My neighbors and I are going after them with boiling water. (Their son crawled right onto a big fire ant mound--owww!--so his dad is on an all out war.) Unfortunately I can't do that in my containers, but I'd love to!

I've read that you can take a shovel full of one fire ant mound and put it on top of another disturbed ant mound, and they'll kill each other. No idea if it's true, but I may set my son loose to find out and keep him busy.

We used a drench of diazinone and it takes care of them. I usually have to do that in Nov. in some before bringing them in for the winter. But rarely see any more fire ants since we and the neighbors have really elimated them pretty well over the last 18 years.

Orange oil kills 'em, but it's a solvent;
I don't think it would be good for the garden plants.

I've had good luck with coffee grounds.

I get them by the trashbag-full at Starbucks & just dump the whole bag on the mound.

Best luck!

The orange oil will kill your potted plants if you pour it on them. You can make a killing solution with a cup of orange oil, a tsp of dish detergent, 3 Tbsp of liquid molasses to a gallon of water. Mix well and pour that on their mounds and it kills the grass in and around the mounds. I never use orange oil full strength and when I'm mixing it up to make the solution I wear latex gloves to protect my skin. I got burned by orange oil the first time I used it and my hands hurt for nearly a week.

Take the plants out of their pots, shake off all the soil and hose the ants off the plants. Then clean out the pots, replace the soil with fresh and replant the plants. When you dump out the affected soil, you can just dump it anywhere because the ants will abandon most of the larva and will scatter. Course the little b*st*rds will probably form a coalition with all the other fire ants in the neighborhood and seek revenge. But they all succumb to orange oil, so keep it on hand.

I don't think that pitting them against one another makes them kill each other off. I think they enjoy the reunion with ancient relatives, celebrate with a Bacchanalia of inbreeding, and make lots more little basta...er, fire ants.

I also found an evil way of coaxing many of them closer to the surface. Place a large bucket over the mound for a month or so and don't move it. They will extend their mound up into the bucket weaving their devils lair to the very top in order to raise their spawn in the warmth and protection of the plastic world. Then, when they become complacent, be prepared with several gallons of your weapon of mass destruction, yank that bucket straight up and pour on the wrath of the garden gods!! Mwahahahahahaha...Cheryl

I like the enclosed bait traps. I just put them on the mound and it is dead in a day or two. I have yet to have one come back, and I can't tell that they've popped up elsewhere.

ann in houston, what are bait traps? do you have a name?

I solved my fire ant problem.... I moved! LOL. It was so bad at our last place I couldn't do anything. I used lots of boiling water but that's never permanent. And why do they always show up in twice as many places after a rain? I hate that!

I have more mounds than I have ever had this year. Seven acres of fire ants keeps me hopping, and I am only mildly successful in getting rid of them. I just try to keep the areas where I will be working from getting too infested. I have used many methods, none of which were 100% successful. I, too, would be interested in the bait traps --- certainly an easier way to treat them.

Thanks all for your suggestions.

ick, Carrie, 7 acres of fire ants is far more than I have to deal with!

Cheryl, I do dilute orange oil... just thinking about it undiluted makes my skin burn! When I have used it for sprays I usually put no more than 1 drop per gallon. Even that burned some flowers last year. (I was going after thrips like a maniac.) I think you're right about needing to replant some of the containers. I turned some of my containers upside down and noticed that some of them aren't draining very well. The problem is, I think, with the bigger containers that have old, compacted potting mix which gets all soupy at the bottoms and the ants REALLY like that. I dumped one inside out today and it was a fire ant madhouse. I went after them with vinegar, soap, orange oil, whatever I had on hand. (Yes, that was fun although I suspect a majority of them immigrated to another paradise.) But just seeing this mess made me realize I need to improve my drainage for my containers.
Amy

I have a neighbor down the street that swears by male urine (apparently female is not effective). He says he doesn't have a fire ant problem (although he thinks he might have chased them to his neighbor's yard and not really killed them--something about he'd move too if someone urinated on his head :)

Alley, that sounds like a great idea. I'm just afraid that with the fire ants, my wife would move too.

Of course is she didn't know....?

I drenched them with diet Coke today. That kills lots of stuff. Fire ants seemed to like it though.

Uckk!

I've found out, through MANY years of experience, that the best way to get fire ants out of pots is to not have them living in there in the 1st place. ALL my pots are elevated on concrete stepping stones (pebble surfaces are the BEST) and that has kept the fire ants out for me. Now, the ones in the yard. . . . .GRRR! And when it's been really, really dry and they start coming in the house. . .I'm thinking flame-thrower? (Yeah, wishful thinking!)

This is what I do ......... it is probably environmentally incorrect but it seems to work. I grab a can of Raid and a large butcher knife I keep outdoors for this purpose. First a spray a circle around the mound to keep from being stung. Then I spray the top of the mound, take the knife and quarter the mound, spraying the raid down inside. It seems to work.......I know it kills them. I do think they have escape tunnels though but, for now, they are out of my way!

I read that talcum powder will cause fireants to abandon the mound (or use their escape tunnels to go elsewhere). I tested it over the weekend. On Friday evening, I poked a stick into the top of a large mound to make sure it was active. Oh, yeah, it was active. Saturday morning, I sprinkled WalMart brand powder (it contained talc and cornstarch) all over the top of it. I covered the entire surface of the mound, and sprinkled it onto the grass all the way around the edges.

Sunday, I poked another stick into the top of the mound and ... no ants.

I have two flowerbeds that have fireants in them, and (hangs head in shame) I've not been brave enough to even weed them (ACK!). I've put powder on the mounds in both of them...

I also read that if you put talcum powder on your shoes and britches legs and it will repel the ants...for a little bit, anyway...maybe long enough for me to escape with fewer bites when I accidentally get around them, I hope.

Molasses has always worked for me... use grocery store liquid kind and thin it a bit and just squirt it on.

Can put in hot water to. They die and some move on.

One fire ant bed helps with fleas and termites they say... chase them to an out of the way space. Sometimes it takes several applications to convince them to move on.