Please note spinosad though it approved for organic farming doesn’t mean it can’t be harmful. For example sulfur is approved for fungal issues but you don’t want to eat or drink it or get it on your skin, body, eyes. etc. You have detergents, things like floor cleaners, alcohols, bug sprays for indoors, etc but they will make you sick or kill you if ingested. Doesn’t mean because it’s approved for home use that it’s safe if used off label directions. People buy stuff all the time and never think to read the label or check the website for complete instructions. SPINOSAD is highly toxic to bees and I worry about it around any pollinators or even my hummers — anything around the flowers or pollen. I would never use when bees etc are active. So I use it before sun comes up and after sunset when most bees etc have gone to nests or settled for the night. Keep in mind besides the bees which you need to pollinate your veggies and fruits or even to get seed pods for self seeding plants or for seed to harvest and re- plant — if you are a butterfly lover — spinosad will kill them. So don’t use it around butterfly plants where they will lay eggs. Know the butterflies you want to keep, what plant they lay eggs on that then feed on the same plants as they become bigger caterpillars that then grow up to be beautiful butterflies. Check the National Pesticide Cemter for this synthetic man made chemical. Note — Spinosad topical suspension is a novel neurotoxin indicated for the treatment of head lice in children 6 months and older. I’m sure it’s effective but we need to keep in mind this is a relative new product (2003 I believe) and we haven’t had the time to see what it might cause 50 years down the road. I would use it in some cases but just know the way it works - some of the bugs still have to chew on your plant to get it in their system. Others like bees can be effective by just contact spray at that moment. Others have to eat the leaf etc and it stops their digestion and they die from starvation. It’s registered in Canada for example and as in other countries more careful with their citizens who can’t use even a fraction of the chemicals we are allowed — but in Canada it can’t be used for organic gardens or farm operations. S. spinosa was isolated from soil collected inside a nonoperational sugar mill rum still in the Virgin Islands. There are 20 natural forms and over 200 synthetic forms. We are all smart enough to know we are no longer getting the natural forms at this point. It’s all commercially produced synthetically produced. I don’t know how they get away with saying it’s natural whether it’s organic or not. It’s used all over the world for many issues.

I have ants doing that at the base of all my crops. They are pretty small ants and they don't seem to be harming the plants so far. It's fairly sandy soil here and I think they are using the roots to help with the architecture of their nests. But I really have no clue and I'm keeping an eye on them...

clinda62, the sting of the fire ant is probably due to formic acid and the soda is carbonic acid. It is feasible that some biochemical reaction between the two acids in the bodies of the ants will result in death. If one accepts the proposition that the survival unit is the HIVE and not the individual BEE and extend this to the fire ant mound, the second control method is also credible. The "transplants" will be treated as invaders and battle it out. There is bound to be a lot of casualties from such a skirmish. Aside: Long ago and far away, an old farmer warned me to 'watch for caterpillars whenever there is lightning and thunder with no rain'. Over the years I observed this to be the case on the few occasions when the conditions occured. Of course caterpillar outbreaks happened in other and different conditions but 'the observation often precedes the science'.

I have noticed the same thing with fire ants around here too. bought a fresh container of amdro the one that has the very small bait modules that you pour out near the fire ants and the fire ants around here just seem to investigate it for hours and never carry any of it back. when a few years back the fire ants used to investigate the poison food bait modules and then after about 10 or 30 minutes carry the amdro back to the nest i am wondering if they built up a resistence to that amdro type of fire ant bait. I am in Florida by the way.