How to eradicate the fire ants with out poisoning my sulcata?

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budhuger

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I have a fire ants infestation in my yard where my baby sulcata grace. Today my sully run over the fire ants mound and she got bitten a couple times I ran to her and blow away the ants but I'm pretty sure that she has bitten at least three to four times and she sleep all day after that. I feel terrible I need to eradicate those ants out of my yard.
How to eradicate the ants with out poisoning my baby sully?
 

franeich

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Pour boiling water down the hole. Or you could connect a hose to your water heater, turn it all the way up for a while and empty it into the hole. Make sure you put your tort away.
 

DeanS

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If your tort is a baby...then keep it in the house for a few days and poison the ants...then flush the whole thing out really well. Then, you can put your baby back out the follwoing day.
 

RV's mom

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if you need to leave poison on the nest and your tort in the yard, put the poison bait in a plastic cap (like a yogurt container) and place a few rocks around the lid (for space) Then put a 1x1 foot square paver stone on top of it. I would use the above methods first, and this as a last choice.

We've had decent luck with our ants, but try to maintain a yard clean of ant mounds. It's RV's habitat - we cannot bring her in the house anymore.

good luck

teri
 

Yvonne G

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Its impossible to get rid of them. I firmly believe that if you could slice off the top layer of earth you would see red ants all over the earth.

Best you can do is kill what's there in that mound. Then they will move to a different location.

Here's a bunch of recipes. The first two should be ok in your tortoise pen, but I like the method of distribution in #2:

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.
 

DeanS

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emysemys said:
Its impossible to get rid of them. I firmly believe that if you could slice off the top layer of earth you would see red ants all over the earth.

Best you can do is kill what's there in that mound. Then they will move to a different location.

Here's a bunch of recipes. The first two should be ok in your tortoise pen, but I like the method of distribution in #2:

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.

Boric acid...I NEVER thought of that...I used to make my own version as a fruit/veggie scrub when I bought my first juicer 20 something years ago! It would be absolutely safe if you had to leave your torts in the vicinity. I know it would take care of the red ants...but I'm not so sure about the fire ants...at least not the ones I experienced in FL.

sharkstar said:
It's RV's habitat - we cannot bring her in the house anymore.

I would! :p Aladar is coming in every night...he's spending his nights in an extra large VariKennel stuffed with Timothy. The room is a constant 75 degrees so I think that's a good night for him! I'm sure he wouldn't mind cuddling with RV!;) I was going to build him a 'barn' but I'm waiting to see what Tom has cooked up for his torts before I embark on another project. :D
 
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