It's the end of January and the fire ants are still pretty active in Georgia. Bengal has been our go to product on the farm for several years, but I'm thinking our ants are becoming immune to it. We might as well be giving them ant candy. It's time to switch, I suppose. What's working for you?
Have you tried home made products? Find out where the colony lives. Pour hot water in their mounds. Make it a lot of hot water. That would either kill all of them or a large number of them. Log In I've heard that a mixture of vinegar and baking soda can also be used to kill fire ants, but having never used them, I wouldn't vouch for it. You could experiment though on a few ants and find out for yourself whether it does work.
Denis, on a place the size of mine the colony lives EVERYWHERE. There are mounds upon mounds upon mounds and we just chase them around the pastures, it seems. It would take an awful lot of hot water for us, I'm afraid; but for someone with a normal sized yard it is a great suggestion. I'll check into the link, though. There might be something there.
That then would call for an entirely different approach. Why don't you try something like Orthene fire ant killer. I've heard it mentioned from time to time but I don't have any experience [using it] myself using it so I'm not sure if it would be the answer you seek. But you could also search around for alternative products.
I suggest trying combat bait traps. These can help keep the ants from becoming an infestation in the home. Just keep in mind if you have pets or children put these in place where they can't get to them. For example under a couch or a bed. As for outside I have also heard about pouring hot water over the hole and we tried it this past year when we had an ant problem. It does work although the ants that survive will just creat another hole, this happened as well.
