Fire Ant problem

I had the same problem in S. Florida,
fire ants are nasty little ****ers...
A couple of years ago, I poured Clorox bleach down the ant hills, killed 'em
dead, they never came back....chem warefare
Orion

"Rich McMahon" wrote in message
...
Last night I set up the dob to look at mars and walked up to the
eyepice and brought the scope around toward mars and then the fire
ants attacked. Moved scope to other location in the yard and they
attacked again. Dusted today and hope they are gone.. Anyone else have
problems with these at night while observing.. I would hope they would
sleep sometimes.

Rich




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I had the same problem in S. Florida,

A couple of years ago, I poured Clorox bleach down the ant hills, killed
'em
dead, they never came back....chem warefare

Aaargh - WMD in S. Florida.

sorry it was amdro:

http://www.amdro.com/

jtm

--

"Ray Porter" wrote in message
...
Never heard of Andro. Do you have a link to the stuff? We never had fire
ants around here until about 4 years ago. A local, upscale development
trucked in fill dirt from somewhere further south and brought fire ants with
the dirt. They now infest the road sides and most yards in the area. By
late summer I'm almost afraid to let my son out of the house. I usually
scout the area I'm going to use for observing inthe afternoon to make sure
I'm not setting up anywhere near a nest.

Ray Porter

"Reef1969" wrote in message
...
The only thing that has killed my fire ants is Andro, they love the stuff.
The
go after it like it was a steak, next day dead ants.

Clear Skies
Richard

(Rich McMahon) wrote in message ...
Last night I set up the dob to look at mars and walked up to the
eyepice and brought the scope around toward mars and then the fire
ants attacked. Moved scope to other location in the yard and they
attacked again. Dusted today and hope they are gone.. Anyone else have
problems with these at night while observing.. I would hope they would
sleep sometimes.

Rich

Use a bait type poison designed for fire-ants. It will kill the
colonies without harming anything else like earthworms. I don't know
what fire-ants like, but we control our ants with boric acid mixed
with maple syrup. They bring it back to the colony and then they ALL
die.

Steve O.

"Orion" wrote:

I had the same problem in S. Florida,
fire ants are nasty little ****ers...
A couple of years ago, I poured Clorox bleach down the ant hills, killed 'em
dead, they never came back....chem warefare
Orion

(snip)

I once was taken on a tour of the Supercollider facilities while they were
under construction. While we were down in the tunnels the guy said that
they found a bunch of linked fire ant "nodes" when they were drilling.
Something well over 50 feet deep and covering acres.

What I want to know is, how do fire ants know to wait until there's at
least 50 of them on you before they all start eating at once? They must
have the equivalent of a "ready, set, go!" .

Zane

John Steinberg wrote:

Dan McKenna wrote:

Yes, many years ago while at McDonald Observatory I used a patrol
camera to take some astro photos for fun. I like 8 by 10 plates ! All
was good until I checked the guiding. A fire ant had crawled on to
the guide eyepiece and when I looked through the eye piece it bit me
on the eye, in the dark on a moon less night. I stumbled into the
radio observatory trailer and no one was there. In the mirror i could
see the ant attached to my eye (the white). I proceeded to use a
paper towel to remove the insect and I had to remove the body from
the head before I could pry it off.

Many a lesser man would have switched to another area of interest after
that experience. My compliments on your fidelity, Dan, and your
ability to remain cool under pressure. You paint an indelible portrait
of that night.


John,

Thanks for the words, let me say that when the pain hit and the smell of
formic acid
registered, I was scared wit less as I thought I would go blind in that
eye.
I panicked and darted towards the radio camp thinking that it was stupid as
there are
snakes out there.( big ones) I could not control my feet and went full
bore. after I plucked the ant from my eye,
I bounced off the walls for hours.

The plate turned out good, but I gave it to some female that thought it was
"neat". it was

That's the rest of the story.

Dan



I only wish I had read it -before- lunch.

--
-John Steinberg
email: lid

JSN News Ticker (r)
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I can't believe you unilaterly attacked the ants with poison. You
should have opened a dialouge with the ants that attacked you in your
own backyard. You must have done something to them to cause them to
attack you.

Rich McMahon wrote:

Last night I set up the dob to look at mars and walked up to the
eyepice and brought the scope around toward mars and then the fire
ants attacked. Moved scope to other location in the yard and they
attacked again. Dusted today and hope they are gone.. Anyone else have
problems with these at night while observing.. I would hope they would
sleep sometimes.

Rich

In article , Rich McMahon wrote:
Last night I set up the dob to look at mars and walked up to the
eyepice and brought the scope around toward mars and then the fire
ants attacked. Moved scope to other location in the yard and they
attacked again. Dusted today and hope they are gone.. Anyone else have
problems with these at night while observing.. I would hope they would
sleep sometimes.

I guess they are light sleepers.

The worst thing about those nasty ants is the huge ant hills they
raise up. It's almost like something from the African plains.

"Rich McMahon" wrote in message
...
Anyone else have
problems with these at night while observing.. I would hope they would
sleep sometimes.

Yep. The weirdest was one year, even when I set up away from any known
nests, they would congregate on the extension cord that supplied power to my
clock drive. So I would happily observe, then start winding up the cord and
have fire ants all up my arms.

I've lived in Florida all my 46 years, and always had to deal with fire
ants..... but that year I think I used up all my bad words. It was just that
one year too. Possibly it's just because I was finally successful in ridding
my yard after that... Dunno.

Oh, I use Amdro. I got to where once a month I would put a very sparse
application in the yard in my usual observing spots. I did that during the
day.

Clear Skies,
Craig in Tampa

In article , Craig
MacDougal wrote:

"Rich McMahon" wrote in message
...
Anyone else have
problems with these at night while observing.. I would hope they would
sleep sometimes.

Yep. The weirdest was one year, even when I set up away from any known
nests, they would congregate on the extension cord that supplied power to my
clock drive. So I would happily observe, then start winding up the cord and
have fire ants all up my arms.

I've lived in Florida all my 46 years, and always had to deal with fire
ants..... but that year I think I used up all my bad words. It was just that
one year too. Possibly it's just because I was finally successful in ridding
my yard after that... Dunno.

Oh, I use Amdro. I got to where once a month I would put a very sparse
application in the yard in my usual observing spots. I did that during the
day.

Clear Skies,
Craig in Tampa


I remeber seeing an TV article on the Discovery Channel that FireAnts
are attracted to electrical signals, which might explain the extension
cord "love fest".

Luckily up here in Canada we don't have them - just West Nile infected
mosquitos on the Eastern Provinces.

Milton Aupperle
www.outcastsoft.com