What do all my southern friends use to kill fire ant hills in the pasture where horses graze? I board so having the entire pasture treated won’t be happening, but I am permitted to spot treat the hills if I want. Just searching for things I can use that will actually eradicate the nasty buggers and won’t be harmful if the horses happen to ingest any of it.
I use the Eliminator granules, but that’s in my yard. It’s the only effective treatment I’ve found. However, I coat the mound heavily, and then you water it in to get it off the surface.
I really doubt it would be safe for a pasture treatment, unless you treat all of the mounds at once, water it in, and then have the horses off that part of the pasture for whatever time is recommended. And if the ants are coming down hill from the neighboring pastures, then they’ll keep popping up. I’ve used liquids, other granules (Amdro was one), and nothing worked but the Eliminator. I would call a professional, and ask if they have any effective treatments that won’t harm animals for treating individual mounds.
Maybe you could find some old dog exercise pens, or metal portable dog kennels, and sit them over each mound as you treat it. Then use the big landscaping fabric ground staples (they are metal, u-shaped, and with long prongs, so you pound them into the ground to hold the cages on the ground securely.
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Amdro is the only thing that I have ever found effective. I spot treat all my mounds with it. You do have to be careful, as the label says you shouldn’t let animals eat it. My fields are big enough that I can treat most things when I have horses rotated out of that field or, if I have to treat something the horses will be in, I will only do a couple mounds at a time so their chances of encountering it are miniscule. I consider it a worthwhile tradeoff because my young horse ended up with a vet bill after he got fire ants all over his face & got all hot & swollen, boo.
Complete eradication of invasive fire ants is pretty much impossible, but you can control their activity & density. I’m able to keep my mounds to a minimum with Amdro spot treatment. Keep in mind that bc of how it works (& it DOES work), it takes a few weeks after treatment for a mound to die off. Workers take the granules back & feed them to the queen. That patience is the hardest part for me.
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also safe to use around pets, our GSD ate some, was told no worry just watch her.
I have noticed for some odd reason the pervasiveness of Fire Ants is lessened at our place in the last five years … have not idea why other than we had a prolonged drought.
At one time we were fighting new mounts all over the place, these days it is a rare occurrence
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You might want to consider a fire ant killer that contains an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR), such as Extinguish (which is suitable for pasture land), in addition to Amdro.
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We have used this natural enzyme solution, the big mounds sometimes need a second treatment.
http://www.naturalginesis.com/fire-ants/
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Ah, thank your dog for being such a helpful test subject, very glad she was fine!
Also, drought could be part of why you see less evidence of ants. When the soil is wet, the ants move up out of it, so there is a lot of new mound development during rainy times. They are still down in the soil (or fenceposts or wherever) when it’s dry, but spend more time subsurface & less time on construction apparently.
Same here, my poor mare several times now has had encounters and she is super allergic! End up needing to pump her full of dex and even then it takes MONTHS for the bite lumps to go away, if they ever do. 
Awww, poor things, my sympathies! Yes, we had to hit the dex too. I can appreciate almost all wildlife, but fire ants are just horrid little critters that need to go away.
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I have them occasionally in my yard and have been bitten. It burns and hurts like…well, a lot and for several days!
Out of curiosity one day I googled them—why are they even on this earth?—turns out they eat ticks and termites!
I hate ticks worse than anything! Even worse that cockroaches—which is a pretty low bar!
oh I am actually well versed in fire ants, have been exposed to them since the very early 1980s… we had hill after hill of the things in the pasture
We had a drought period that was followed by a year of near record rain… the fire ants are not as pervasive as they once were
Just a note: they say the weather must be 70 degrees or more when you treat them. I used Cedarcide to treat mine. it is 100 % cedar oil, it is expensive. I did the mound and start spraying the ants as they flee and dig again and repeat. It is non-toxic. I will also look into the Kleen green that someone mentioned above.
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I know those suckers do burn!!! I actually thought my mare was colicing that’s how uncomfortable they made her! I’d rather deal with ticks! The ants stung her so many times on her udders they swelled up to three times the size and were leaking serum. And her tail was so bit up it was leaking so much serum her tail hair was soaked in sticky nastiness! I felt so bad for her! Frickin evil devil spawned creatures!
This will not get rid of a colony - as long as there is a queen, she will just make more workers & disturbing a mound just means any escapees (their burrows are very deep & complex) will just make a new one elsewhere. There is even a variety that has multiple queens per colony, which are even more aggressive than the more common single-queen types.
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Eh maybe I should just take my blow torch out there with some gasoline 
:lol:
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I have used amdro and extinguish with good luck. The ants need to be feeding, these are baits. Put a cracker near the mound and if the ants are all over it in 30 min you are good. Sprinkle it around the mound, not on top. Don’t use if its going to rain or get wet.
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Good to know! All the ones listed as crumbles have instructions to pour gallons of water onto the mound after you’ve sprinkled the crumbles, but you use them dry in this manner and they work? Seems like a far easier solution when I have to walk the pasture and do this to 10+ mounds!
I leave them alone unless they are in a bad spot where I walk frequently to water the garden. I also treat the mounds by gates or the hitching post. No matter what you treat with, organic or not, all you do is make them move on. Horses stomping around paddocks usually drive them away. Never had trouble with them biting horses. Maybe we’re just lucky.
If you feel adventurous, you can try to start fire ant wars. It did make two mounds diminish and relocate, lol! I drove a shovel into an active mound, immediately exciting it’s occupants, and ran like crazy across the yard to dump it on another mound. Then, I did the reverse. Lots of screaming and praying that I didn’t trip! Just make sure you aren’t just moving the back door ants to the front door. It was amusing for those watching me, anyway.
OMG, That is horrible! I am so sorry!
I have found that it is best to get them when the nest is small or young because that is before the queen gets there—apparently she has fairly high standards!
When we first moved here we had an exterminator deal with them—just a yard, not acres—and he told me stories about a flood several years ago when they all banded together and collectively rotated through the waters so none would drowned—he was impressed! Yuck!
With Amdro, there are thorough instructions on container follow those. Yes, it is used dry, do not put out before rain. It’s very very easy.
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