Fire Ant Season Is Here! How to Get Rid of the Smallest Beast With the Biggest Bite.
The little Beasts are back! At least for the Summer!
The best part of winter is, not having to cope with fire ants. The colder the weather the deeper underground they go.
The carnivorous insects are back and just waiting for you, or me to step on or near the mound.
Using a weed trimmer is the fastest and easiest way to find them, expect to see fire ant mounds after you have hit them, especially if the grass is high, and you have a volcanic eruption of fire breathing, biting insects. (They are not really fire breathing, but if they bite you, it feels like it.) And to some people fire ant bites/stings can be deadly.
Don't socialize in my House, and don't socialize in my back yard.
Once you understand, how smart these little fire ant critters are, then you can just imagine what we humans are up against. I read an article, saying they are the smartest insect of all the species. The article stated that they have about 250 thousand brain cells. The article also stated that the fire ants are so smart they grow their own food. The ambitious fire ants know how to grow aphids for the sweet secretion they produce, that they, the fire ants can feed on.
According to ScienceDaily (Oct. 9, 2007) — Aphids are subdued by chemicals on ants' feet with which are used to tranquilize and keep them prisoner, in order to harvest, and feed on the aphid's sweet secretions.
Some fire ants steal pupae from other species of ants and make them slaves when pupae hatch.
It is impossible to eradicate ants, all we can do is try to control them.
It is impossible to eradicate ants.So what do we do? We try to control them.One article stated that cornmeal would kill the fire ant colony if it is sprinkled around the mound.I will try that, but do not see how that will work.Another article stated that: You can make a bait station with something sweet, maybe honey and sprinkle with Borax, which is toxic to ants and relatively safe for humans, and in another article, it states that fire ants or any ant species will just go away if you use vinegar for cleaning as the little beast can't stand the smell or the taste.How do they know that about vinegar?
Per Wikipedia: The fire bites only to get a grip and then sting (from the abdomen) and inject a toxic alkaloid venom called solenopsin, a compound from the class of piperidines. For humans, this is a painful sting, a sensation similar to what one feels when burned by Fire—hence the name fire ant—and the after effects of the sting can be deadly to sensitive individuals. The venom is both insecticidal and antibiotic.
Symptoms of severe allergic reactions to fire ant bites or stings include: severe sweating, difficulty breathing, severe chest pain, nausea, swelling, and slurred speech. If you have these symptoms they can be fatal if not treated. Some or all these symptoms are indicative of other problems or conditions.
