Ant control

[9 ER]

How do yall control ant mounds in the pastures? I dont really have an ant problem. I put ant killer on the mounds when they come up, but I've seen some places that you couldnt take a step without stepping on a mound. I know that you big-timers dont treat each individual mound like I do. So what do you do?

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

When I lived in N. Central Texas I used Diazinon broadcasted and treated individual mounts with biological IGR product as well as spot treated some bad mounds with Orthene.

To finally solve our problem (as well as other reasons) we re-located our operation to the Texas Panhandle where we haven't found any fireants since we moved March, 2002.

 

[Craig-TX]

Fire ants are a real problem. The tree huggers have gotten the most effective and least expensive products outlawed. Pesticide products available today are too expensive and ineffective for pasture use. I run over their mounds every time I drive near one. Not sure how hard it is on them but it does me a lot of good.

Anywhere around the lots or other areas where fire ants are a human nuisance I treat them with a small dose of liquid ant killer. The best, cheapest and most convenient type can be bought by the gallon pre-mixed. An added advantage is that your mower will run on it – ha. It only takes a little bit to kill the queen, even in a big mound, because the fumes get her if the liquid doesn't.

Craig-TX

 

[jt]

havent tried it to know if this works, but i was told that in the winter when they are dormant underground, you could take a pipe and beat it down into their mound a foot or so and pour some bleach down in there... maybe one day i will try it, but right now things are too busy and i dont think about em much in the winter.. i guess out of sight out of mind :roll:

just wondering if anyone has tried this??

jt

 

[sidney411]

We drag our pastures to knock down the ant hills and hog ruts. That's all we've done.

 

[TLCfromARK]

havent tried it to know if this works, but i was told that in the winter when they are dormant underground, you could take a pipe and beat it down into their mound a foot or so and pour some bleach down in there... maybe one day i will try it, but right now things are too busy and i dont think about em much in the winter.. i guess out of sight out of mind :roll:

just wondering if anyone has tried this??

jt

I've used my pike, a big steel bar pointed on one end, that I use for helping when I dig post holes in clay gravel. I drive it as deep into the mound as I can by hand ( 2-3 feet?) roll it around some and then pour some of Craig's pre-mixed "pesticide" into the hole. I've only done this in the summertime, never tried it in the winter. If you can catch it before a big rain comes through it seems to be easier. The ants build their mounds a little higher and move their eggs up closer to the surface to keep from getting them flooded.

By the way Craig, I had to smile when you talked about driving over the mounds. My brother says he can always tell when I've been up to check on the cows, circles all over the field and flattened out mounds! Tractor, truck, whatever I'm on at the time.

;-)

 

[Caustic Burno]

Drag the pasture witn a piece of railroad iron with two dozer tracks welded to it. Takes a pretty good tractor, then spray with liquid seven.

 

[Bama]

Fire ants are a real problem in North Alabama. I remember as a kid one lower end of one pasture was so thick that you could walk across it jumping from mound to mound. Anyone thats been around them knows better than to do this. When I was 9 or 10 there were no fireants, when I was 14 to 15 was when they moved in. In less than 2 years that field was covered. My dad used a box blade on them and mixed them all together. They will kill ants from a differant coloney.That thined them out quite a bit. Now that I'm in my 40's I still fighting them. I go rid of them in my front yard by broadcasting, but this cost me about $80.00 and acre per year. This is way to expensive to do a whole pasture. I have tried most of the home treatments - gas, dish detergent, citrus juice, oil, and an occasional cussing. None of these worked but the cussing did make me feel better. I have done some research on this is the best thing I have found is to leave them alone. They are very territorial if a mound is established they will have a certain area that is their forage range. Another queen will not build in this established territory. If you do manage to kill one mound out or force them to move, several more will come in to claim the territory. It will be a smaller forage area but more mounds. The only ones I go after are those that are really a pain. Ones near gates of other areas I have to frequent. Those mounds are like iceburgs, most of it is underground. They use the mounds to move the eggs around to regulate the temperature. I have cut into a bank and saw them go down 15 feet. The dozer guy said he had saw them as deep as 35 feet. They don't go strait down but they build little chambers down under the mound. In the last few years we are starting to get armidillos. We didn't have these before I guess the climate is warming up. I have heard the armadillos dig the mounds up. I have saw a few that were disturbed but I don't know if that was what did it. It would have to be a onery little cuss to stay there and dig. If anybody has a better idea on the ants I would be willing to give it a try, but I havn't found anything that works. 30 years ago ants, 10 years ago armadillos, how many years before we have elephants around here.

 

[Beefy]

armadillos will eat them but they tend to like worms a lot too...so fish bait or ant control, your call. Mixing beds will work too but you have to mix a LOT of ants, otherwise the larger colony will just wipe out the introduced one. the best control ive witnessed so far has been the monsoons. you see mounds of ants with the queen sitting on top floating by you, then across the pond, then over the spillway. its a spectacular thing to witness. :devil2:

 

[MrBilly]

An old timer told me to get out and bushhog the tops off the mounds just before a freeze. I have done this once, and indeed there was a marked reduction. Cause and effect? Don't know, but I will try again next year.

Billy

 

[fellersbarnoneranch]

Sometimes when that stuff works, it's better to just take it and not go to wondering why!

 

[Copenhagen & Shiner B]

Come on now, you know that fire ants do a good job of aereating pastures, but they are the devil when you cut hay.

 

[jerry27150]

i try to bush hog them level so they don't tip over the four-wheelers

 

[samm]

i hate them dang things....i run the mounds over on the 4 wheeler, sometimes with the golf cart...the creek was out of the banks a couple months ago, and i saw a floating colony of ants....they used each other as a raft....it was unbelievable. i tried to sink them with a tree branch.....they dont sink....it was like something out of a creepy movie. when we fertilize by the barn and house, and shop we add poison in with the fertilizer, and that kinda keeps them out of the yard, and spot treat with amdro or something similar...but in the pasture we mow the mounds over, run em over, anything to keep them at a minimum. my dad had told us several years ago that he thought the fire ants kill the baby rabbits, and thats why there aint as many as there used to be. i know my grandson has learned to stay away from the mounds....even the little ones....ouch...

 

[sidney411]

Fire ants kill more then baby rabbits, they will kill almost any baby that is laying on the ground or in burrows. That is some of the reason the wild turkey, rabbit and other populations are decreasing. They will aslo get on baby deer anf calves if they stay in one spot too long. Expecially if they are wet from just being born, it attracts near by ants. I've seen that happen that a newborn that was abandoned was covered by ants.

 

[preston39]

How far north/east are these ant pests now? Any in Southern Illinois...Northern Arkansas...Southeastern Missouri?

Don't have enough problems :shock: just wondered when the new one may arrive. :roll:

 

[WORANCH]

How far north/east are these ant pests now? Any in Southern Illinois...Northern Arkansas...Southeastern Missouri?

Don't have enough problems :shock: just wondered when the new one may arrive. :roll:

We don't have them here . I don't think they can build a nest in the rocks .

 

[dun]

We don't have them here . I don't think they can build a nest in the rocks .

If it's like here they can't get mining permits. And I don;t know how good they are with explosives

dun

 

[sidney411]

We have plenty - I'm taking orders, let me know how many you want and I'll have them shipped.

 

[preston39]

We have plenty - I'm taking orders, let me know how many you want and I'll have them shipped.

==============
"sidney 411"
You're to kind....not going to charge per 100,000?...that's different.

Hope to heck we stay out of their path...but, i'm concerned that we may have migration any day. Hear they are a real probem down in your area. Course Texas is big enough to handle 'em! :lol: Aren't the Armadillo's having a field day? ...hummmm they may be herbervors..come to think of it. Does anything...birds...martins....eat ants? Woodpeckers do...on the white oaks...the little fellows.