Fire Ants

[ICUSleeping]

I have this huge yard my Zeus roams but its full of fire ants everywhere and I mean EEVVEERRYYWhere so I just recently moved and I've forgotten all the nature things to kill the ants without hurting my tort..help

 

[Yvonne G]

I just posted a long list of different home made remedies you can use, but I can't find it right now. If you do a search for ants, you'll get quite a few different threads on the subject.

 

[jaizei]

I just posted a long list of different home made remedies you can use, but I can't find it right now. If you do a search for ants, you'll get quite a few different threads on the subject.

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-68501-post-647380.html#pid647380

Several Home-made Ant Remedies

1 – Boric Acid
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon of Boric Acid, 1 tsp of Sugar, 4 oz water, Cotton Balls.
Mix Boric Acid and Sugar in a bowl. This can be poured over a cotton wad in
a small dish or bottle cap. Keep this from drying out for continued
effectiveness. Place Cotton balls in path of Ants. If the ants are drawn to sugar, if you make a solution of boric acid and sugar, not too much boric acid initially, the ants will eat it up take it to their young and feed it to them. This method will kill the entire nest in about two weeks. The solution should initially be weak because you don't want them to taste the boric acid and you don't want to kill the ants before they feed the rest of the nest. If they are protein eating ants mix the boric acid in broth.

2 – Another Boric Acid

>> 1 teaspoon boric acid (available at any drug store,, $2.99 for 4 oz) 6 tablespoons sugar
>> 2 cups water
>> mix together in a jar till all dissolved,, label and store safely.
>>Soak a few cotton balls with it, then put them in a small, covered plastic >container (margarine or <?>) with a few small openings in it for the ants to >get in, (I also put a brick on top so other curious creatures could not get >in)and then freshen it 1-2 times a week.
>> This is a slow acting 1 percent solution to get them to take some back to
>> the nest and even feed the queen :>
>>after a few weeks changing to a 1/2 percent solution should keep them gone.

3 - bacon grease
....in a margarine tub which is sunk into the ground level. The ants here can smell animal fat from what seems like a mile away...Around the outside of the margarine tub I place a big circle of boric acid...and cover it with a rock. The ants have to walk through the boric acid to get to the bacon grease, then back through it on the way out. If they get back to the nest carrying it on their legs, it kills whatever it comes into contact with. We have 4or 5 species of ants here...two of which are lethal!

4 - Found this in Jerry Bakers stuff
Ant Ambrosia
4-5 tbsp. of cornmeal
3 tbsp. of bacon grease
3 tbsp. of baking powder
3 packages of baker's yeast

Mix the cornmeal and bacon grease into a paste, then add the baking powder and yeast. Dab the gooey mix on the sides of jar lids, and set them near the anthills. The pesky critters will love it to death!!""


5 - If you can't find Everclear, liquefy orange peels and pour it around the ant hills. You may get fruit flies, but you won't have any trouble with ants!

6 - I have a friend that put a circle of diatomaceous earth around her aviaries and
effectively kept the ants out that way. She also uses it to directly attack any hills in the area.

7 - I believe that the "new age chalk" is a combination of diatomaceous earth and boric acid. Boric acid is the major component in "Roach Proof" and is a fairly benign and very effective means of insect control.

8 - Amdro is another effective treatment, but it is an actual poison, but safer than others. Both Amdro and Logic are baits that the ants pick up and take into the mound so that the queen eats it.

 

[Yvonne G]

Thank you, Cameron! I knew I could depend upon you.

 

[ICUSleeping]

I've lost my 1yr old tort today in this yard I'm kind of devastated at the moment because there's so much land and lakes and deep holes and its not fenced I'm hoping he pops up in the morning/ afternoon time ...I'm so sad

 

[theelectraco]

Don't stop looking for him! He could get even further away. Get your flashlights out and start searching again!

 

[Sonja215]

I lose Herbie all the time, he always goes to the same places. Last time we were in the front of my house, I spent all late afternoon into the evening raking up leaves looking for him. Night fell and I put out a red heat lamp next to my steps thinking he'd see it and go to it. Next morning I called into work and began raking at 0730, low and behold, here I found him an hour later in the same spot along my wall dug in about a 1/4 of an inch in the dirt. I swear I had raked over that same spot at least two or three times the day prior knowing he liked that spot even though he's only been out front only a handful of times.

My advice, think of a path that your guy has taken and follow it. Herbie always goes along the wall of the house or into a nook in tree in my yard. Same path each time. Good luck! Hope you find him quickly.