How does one get rid of ' fire ants' nesting on a garden plant??

These are the red ants about 5/8 inches in lengt which have formed a nest and colony on one of the ferns in the garden and they seem to be spreading to the neighbouring plants.

How does one get rid of ' fire ants' nesting on a garden plant??
u burn it
Reply:Here is one suggestiofrom http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~gilbert/resear...





First, put small pieces of hot dog as bait around the yard. Visually match up ants that come to bait with fire ants that you see by disturbing the mounds. If you have an area dominated by ants other than fire ants, avoid treating that. If you do have fire ants, use Amdro, Award, Logic or similar granule bait preparations. These don't kill instantly but give the workers a chance to take the bait back to the mound as food where its pesticides disrupt reproduction by hormonal control over queen ants. Fire ants forage out of underground tunnels that lead all around within 100' of a mound. Therefore use a broadcast spreader to evenly distribute the bait over your yard.





Pick a mild day on which you first determine that the ants will swarm a piece of hot dog. That means they will efficiently harvest the bait. Broadcast these granules all over the infested area on a nice day so that the fire ants get all of the bait. The worker ants will take the granules into the mound. Be patient because these baits take about 6 weeks to take effect; the mound will die. You should have control for many months and additional spot applications of the granule baits when you see small mounds restarting should keep things tolerable (or with just a mound or two, boiling water poured on the mound when it comes up after a rain is very effective).





If you coordinate with neighbors and use the same treatment area-wide on the same week, you will reduce the rate of re-invasion. We find that native ants increase after such treatments and that's good because they serve useful functions including helping to resist fire ant invasion. Imported fire ants are often the worst where native ants have been disrupted by soil disturbances that accompany home and road construction, or exterminated by broad spectrum pesticides.





Here's the suggestion: 3/4 lb. hydramethylnon in baited granules (under trade names "Amdro" or "Siege") mixed with 3/4 lb s-methoprene in baited granules (under trade name "Extinguish") broadcast applied per acre. A report published on trials with this mix is on the web: Amdro/Siege, a metabolic inhibitor, takes 3-6 weeks after ants consume it to show an effect and the effect lasts for several months until a re-invasion occurs. Extinguish is a growth regulator that takes longer to show an impact, but then can last a year or more. Since these things are not instantly toxic, workers can distribute each of them throughout the colony long before effects set in. While these compounds or breakdown products definitely would not be good for frogs or fish, if application occurs during a period when no run-off rains are anticipated, all of the active material will be taken into fire ant mounds within 30 minutes. Persistence in the environment is relatively short for both.
Reply:Hang a Sign out in The Garden





Reading ;


"Chocolate Covered Ants For Supper Every Friday"





Gets em Everytime ... LOL





Make sure You Place the sign in a Place they can read it


Don't worry bout the ones underground , The others will tell em





Orrrrrrrrr


(%26amp; This Really Works)


Put a Hostess Cupcake or Twinky (cupcake works better)


Put t in a Place You'd Rather Have them Be





Not to Close, The'll just wanna Go Get it %26amp; Come Back to the Garden, But Not so Far they'd never Know of its existance





Far enough the'll be willing to move
Reply:I have 2 ways to help you. 1. Pour wet grits on the mound!!! the will eat the grits and because they expand the ants will explode!!!! If that doesn't work then try taking some dish-washing liquid and water (mixed together) and dump it on the mound. don't worry neither of these methods will harm your plants!!!! Have fun watching the ants disappear!!!!!