Ants! ARGH

[Arelle]

:mad::mad::mad:

I told my husband that I’m about ready to torch this place.

:lol::nonchalance:

Stupid ANTS.

We’ve had a couple of issues here and there that have been spot treated, but over the last week or so they’ve moved into my barn in a BIG way. The last two nights I’ve ended up with about 20-30 bites on my feet.

SO -

I did a search on here to see if anyone had any ideas to kill these suckers off. I found brush hogging and spot treating.

I also did a search on Google and it was mostly a bunch of hippies touting vinegar water and a Borax mixture.

:lol:

Now, I’m half kidding because I DO like the natural methods - BUT seeing as I have the problem NOW and the damn things are in two of my stalls – what’s the most effective way to A) kill the ones NOW and B) prevent them from coming back (ideally, farm wide).

I know I can’t keep my entire five acres totally pest free, but give me the best odds - please.

EDITED: looking for something that’s obviously safe around pets and my pregnant mares/stud

[JLR1]

There was a huge ant mound in a pasture my horse was in and I dumped a full gallon of straight vinegar into the mound from small holes I made using a stick. The next day hundreds of dead ants were laying outside the mound. Vinegar definitely works if you can find the source.

You could also sprinkle food grade Diatomaceous earth (DE) in the stalls or around the perimeter of the stalls where you see ants coming in. For safety of your horses and pets it has to be food grade. DE is most effective in dry conditions, so it may not do the trick for spot treating a mound if it is wet where you live.

[csaper58]

What kind of ants?

In the barn try Terro ant traps www.terro.com I got them at Lowes

For outside try Amdro bait.

[macmtn]

Love Amdro bait. Takes a couple of weeks to work, but then…antfree zone!

I was raking leaves that piled up against the oil tank and its cement slab. surprise!
it was a large colony of flying ants in the process of moving in under the leaves.
The whole ground was…wiggling.
AARRGG!

could not find my bug spray, so in desperation used a can of WD40.
amazing!! Killed on contact.

[goodhors]

I have had good luck with Terro ant bait in the house. Little plastic trays you cut the end off to open for ants. Any of the Terro products work well for me.

Not sure how effective it is, but an old one mixing granulated sugar an borax for them to eat, pour by the ant hill so ants find it. You might put an anchored laundry basket over it to keep dogs out, yet see if ants are taking any.

Hope you can get them gone soon.

[NoSuchPerson]

If they’re fire ants, lots of the useless “natural” methods will appear to work because if you disturb the mound sufficiently, the ants will move. But all you’re doing is relocating the problem. Sometimes, that’s enough. You can make a mound move (usually) just by pouring boiling water on it.

Or pouring BURNING HOT MOLTEN ALUMINUM! on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUYqGX6a4vQ

Sorry. I just love that and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share it. Again.

But if you truly want to get rid of the mound, you have to use a bait like Amdro that will get carried back into the mound and consumed by the queen.

[clanter]

[QUOTE=csaper58;8925563]
What kind of ants?

.[/QUOTE]

given OP is in Aubrey, Texas and was bitten… Fire Ants most likely

[pAin_t_Misbehavin]

Agree with NoSuchPerson. Since I have free range chickens, I no longer use the bait crumbles. But when I could they worked really well. I would keep the horses off the treated area for awhile until the bait gets dispersed.

We recently had a hurricane here. The ants got flooded out of their tunnels, and caused the ground to drop out from under several of my t-posts! The posts were in the same place, but were only about two feet tall! Never saw that before.

[Arelle]

Done and done! Going to Lowe’s tonight to launch a massive counter attack.

Between my neighbor baling the field by my barn (which had been untouched for over a year) and the monsoon we’ve been having, I “get” why they’ve arrived so suddenly - but I’m about to wipe them out. :applause:

[JanM]

The good thing about this, is that the huge rainfall has made the ants build giant mounds, and that makes them easier to find. The biggest ant mound I ever saw was in a front yard about a mile from my house. The broken down old car sat there for months, and an ant mount on the front wheel was taller than the top of the tire.

To get rid of mounds I buy the liquid jugs of bug spray, unscrew the cap, and first pour a full circle around the base of the hill. Then I pour the entire rest of the jug on the mound. I wait an hour or so, then water the bug spray in, so the residue is gone from the surface. Don’t do this if you have a well though.

Unfortunately, they banned Diazenon (or however it was spelled), because it was the equivalent of nerve gas.