Ant hills

[Caustic Burno]

I think fire ant

Extinguisher is made for the pasture and works.

Control Fire Ants in Pastures, Hayfields, and Barnyards | Mississippi State University Extension Service

Fire ants thrive in Mississippi pastures and hayfields because these habitats are similar to the pampas in their native lands of Brazil and Argentina. It is no fun to haul hay bales from a fire ant-infested field, and the mounds can interfere with mowing and even damage equipment.

extension.msstate.edu

 

[greybeard]

Ortho Fire Ant Killer. Sprinkle it on the top and walk away. The workers will carry it inside the mound and they are dying within a few minutes.

Yes, but any of those type fire ant 'killers' uses acephate as it's active ingredient. Does it work? Yes, to some extent, but if you pay close attention in most every application you will find that within a few days what happens is that the colony just moves 8-12 feet away and begins a new mound. The old mound, if you dig down into a couple of days after application may have a few hundred dead ants but the colony was comprised of many thousands of ants. The dead ones are only a fraction of the colony and almost all male drones, which are expendable anyway.

The red imported fire ants (RIFA) we have here (Solenopsis invicta ) have shown up in Japan and a Japanese research paper published in 2021 showed that 6 different pyrethroids worked pretty good in regards to Toxicity with RIFA. In all,11 different insecticides were tested for toxicity.
6 quick-acting synthetic pyrethroids (transfluthrin, prallethrin, phenothrin, permethrin, metofluthrin, and pyrethrin).
5 newer-type insecticides (fipronil, thiamethoxam, indoxacarb, imidacloprid, and hydramethylnon)
(hydramethylnon is one of the 2 active ingredients in Extinguish. The other is S-methoprene)

All the insecticides in the research were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). The results were listed 2 ways. LD50 (lethal Dose) meaning at least 50% of the ants were dead, and ED50, (Effective Dose) meaning that at least 50% of the test subjects were effectively rendered inhibited in movement or immobileand the results were posted in relation to time after exposure ( 12 hrs, 24 hours 72 hours etc..)
Of the older familiar insecticides they tested, Pyretherin was the best among the pyrethroids.
Among the newest, Fipronil seemed to be the most toxic to RIFA.

Surprisingly hydramethylnon was the least effective:
The LD50 values of hydramethylnon could not be estimated, because there were no fatalities even at the highest concentrations. No ants showed inhibition of movement or immobility at first observation (Fig. S2)

Some of the newer ones had an increased LD50 and ED50 after more elapsed time than in the short term.
I haven't looked but it may well be that some of the tested insecticides are not legal for use in the USA..I dunno.
You can read thru the report here:

Acute toxicity of typical ant control agents to the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) - Applied Entomology and Zoology

The red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), is a serious invasive alien ant around the world and has expanded its invasive range to the Pacific Rim since the early 2000s. It was first reported in Japan in 2017, and its entry through cargo has been reported...

link.springer.com

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13355-021-00728-8

 

[Kentcal]

As above. Extinguish works. Pricey but effective. Used my 3-point spreader and applied yearly. Central Florida area-Highlands County.

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

I started trying the borax and sugar thing couple weeks ago at first it seemed to help reduce the size of the mound but never kill it entirely.
I tried it with making a solution, soaking cotton balls, not disturbing the mountain sitting in the cotton ball on top of the mound so they would eat it and carry it down the nest.
I also tried mixing borax with some Coca-Cola and that was pretty effective pouring it down the mound but still within a couple of days mound would be rebuilt.
Out of Everything I tried gasoline seems to be the most effective and used to be the cheapest...
But I don't want gasoline in my pasture.

 

[Ouachita]

Sounds like a science project is in order. Maybe we could segue that into the photo contest.

 

[greybeard]

Sounds like a science project is in order. Maybe we could segue that into the photo contest.

TC in her Daisy Dukes with (or without) fire ant bites would most likely win by a huge margin.
(pics or it didn't happen!)

 

[Ouachita]

TC in her Daisy Dukes with (or without) fire ant bites would most likely win by a huge margin.
(pics or it didn't happen!)

Sounds like a challenge here TC. I'll make you a deal; you bare your fire ant wounds and I'll post a video loading the dishwasher in my boots while listening to Bush's "Machinehead"

 

[jamiesf]

We use Bifenthrin 7.9%, kills the fire ants and will not harm the cattle.

 

[Ouachita]

I use propane and invite the neighbors. Apparently it's a blast because they keep calling and wanting to come back.
Just teach'em how to pitch the match.

 

[Travlr]

I use propane and invite the neighbors. Apparently it's a blast because they keep calling and wanting to come back.
Just teach'em how to pitch the match.

I had one of those propane wands to blow up prairie dogs. It was fun but it didn't get rid of them. We finally got the county to poison them. I didn't mind when the town was only five acres because they made good target practice, but they decided they needed more real estate.

 

[TCRanch]

Sounds like a challenge here TC. I'll make you a deal; you bare your fire ant wounds and I'll post a video loading the dishwasher in my boots while listening to Bush's "Machinehead"

Nobody wants to see my lily-white legs anymore and rockin' a scar the size of Dallas! Precisely why I wore my Freddie Mercury-esque Old Gringo c'boy boots with a dress to a Roaring 20's themed gala/fundraiser. Hanging on to that last shred of dignity!

P.S. Great song!!

 

[TCRanch]

I had one of those propane wands to blow up prairie dogs. It was fun but it didn't get rid of them. We finally got the county to poison them. I didn't mind when the town was only five acres because they made good target practice, but they decided they needed more real estate.

You were dangerously close to going full-out Caddyshack!

 

[kenny thomas]

I had one of those propane wands to blow up prairie dogs. It was fun but it didn't get rid of them. We finally got the county to poison them. I didn't mind when the town was only five acres because they made good target practice, but they decided they needed more real estate.

Only 5 acres? How big do the towns get?

 

[Travlr]

Only 5 acres? How big do the towns get?

I don't know and I don't want to. I had a badger, coyotes, hawks and a brother-in-law with long range equipment helping me and the damn things were still propagating faster than they could be controlled.

 

[greybeard]

There's pretty good income some places charging a fee for prairie dog shootin.

https://www.redboneoutfitting.com/montana-prairie-dog-hunting/

 

[tcolvin]

One of the most important things you can do when you sign up is to put your state on your profile. Let's everyone know what kind of situation you are in, weather, bugs, etc.

South East Georgia

 

[Warren Allison]

South East Georgia

What kind of cattle you have, and how many?

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

As I recall, the years before we left Texas in 2020 the scientists at UT bred up and released millions of tiny predatory flies native to South America that eat the brains of fire ants. What used to be wall to wall fire ant hills becaame occassional fire ant hills in Bastrop counry anyway. The native harester and leafcutter ants came back and other native ants like sugar ants. There was a harvester ant hill I had been watching for over 30 years on the way into the cattle trap. Glad to see them doing so well.

But the fire ants did away with the bobwhite quail and they never came back, and neither did the ticks.

 

[greybeard]

The Phorid flies don't 'exactly' eat the fire ant's brains. Their offspring maggot does as it develops but not immediately. It first takes control of the ant as it develops from egg to larvae to juvenile fly. It was UT at Austin that pioneered the research and cultivation of enough South American Phorids to get started with the program

The phorid fly uses the injection stinger on its rear end to squirt an egg into the shoulder joint of a fire ant. That encounter lasts for about 1/60th of a second, Plowes said. Plowes described this phenomenon as a duck trying to lay an egg on the back of a pick-up truck moving down a highway. In other words, it's tricky.

If the phorid fly succeeds, the egg develops into a maggot, which wiggles up into the ant's head. After a couple of days, the maggot will start to feast upon the ant's head tissues. It mainly feeds on the ant's jaw muscles, causing "zombie-like" dangling jaws.

After two weeks, the developing fly is able to manipulate the ant's motion and becomes a little zombie worker by having the ability to control the ant's movement from the inside.

The ant, now moving like a lifeless zombie driven by the phorid fly, will then leave the nest and finds somewhere that is safe, normally in a dark area around five to 10 yards away from the nest, Plowes said. At that point, the fly will release an enzyme that will cause the ant's head to fall off. The head will act as a capsule for the fly for another two weeks, after which the fly will exit the ant's mouth.
.....................................................

The University of Texas at Austin invasive species research program is attempting to control invasive fire ant populations in Texas with South American phorid flies. PBS showcased this process in its "SuperNature – Wild Flyers" documentary this summer, made with help from the university.
Phorid flies and fire ants are native to South America, where the 23 different phorid fly species help to control the ants.
"[Phorid flies] are simply another tool in the toolbox of integrated pest management," U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Imported Fire Ant Quarantine Program Manager Charles Brown tells PBS.

Zombie ants
The process starts when a fly seeks out an ant and injects an egg into the ant's thorax. When the egg hatches inside the ant, the larva wiggles into the ant's head, where it feeds on the brain, making the ant act "zombie"-like.
"There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly," says Rob Plowes, a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin.
The larva later "steers" the fire ant away from its colony to fully develop. The ant eventually dies, and the fly decapitates the host. The process is repeated.

 

[chaded]

That's pretty scary stuff.