Friday, February 6, 2009

Aunt Debbi is a Homicidal Maniac

I just discovered a great way to vent my frustrations without going to jail - murdering fire ants. Nobody cares if you kill fire ants and like it. The ant colony in the compost pile was much larger than I expected. It spread all the way through the pile and into a few large containers of soil waiting for spring and new plants. A quick trip to the feed store and I have the stuff to annihilate the ants. Don't worry, I am staying organic. There will be no harmful chemicals. Nope, I bought diatomaceous earth (DE). I went outside and disturbed the pile. When the ants came out ready to kick my sorry butt, I spread DE all over them and watched them die. BWAHAHAHA. I feel so much better.
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13 comments:

  1. UnknownFebruary 6, 2009 at 12:23 PM

    I can imagine it now.

    I used to have horrible ant problems at my old house. When we moved in the lawn was completely dead and everywhere I looked there were ant hills. I can relate. Not so many ant problems here (thank God!).

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  2. VPFebruary 6, 2009 at 1:00 PM

    I have the same tendencies towards slugs!

    Have a great weekend :)

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  3. FoxyMoronFebruary 6, 2009 at 2:21 PM

    Not sure what fire ants are. Must look that up. We have an infestation of the tiny little "sugar ants" in the house, they're everywhere. I too enjoy watching them die. Shamefully I do use chemicals, but they get in the cat's food and into our food!

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  4. AnonymousFebruary 6, 2009 at 2:32 PM

    Glad we don't have them here in VA yet. They are really hard to get rid of from what I remember. Go crazy Deb & kill some for me too! lol

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  5. Femin SusanFebruary 6, 2009 at 4:29 PM

    Hi………
    Very cool your blog!
    Great! Keep posting…….
    Good week………

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  6. NolaFebruary 6, 2009 at 5:24 PM

    Mental note: do not piss Aunt Debbi off!
    My mom used to get mad at them and she wouldn't use chemicals, either. Instead, she poured a teakettle of boiling water into the mound! The next day there would be a huge mound of dead ants that had been carried out of the mound and left in a pile.

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  7. Meadowview ThymesFebruary 6, 2009 at 5:50 PM

    You go girl!!!!

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  8. Aunt Debbi/kurts momFebruary 6, 2009 at 6:58 PM

    Cinj, those ants are toast.

    VP, EWWWW SLUGS.

    Foxy, We have to do what we have to do.

    Raquel, Hopefully, they will never migrate to your area.

    Hi Femin Susan, thanks for stopping by.

    Nola, I've revealed my dark side. I've boiled them too. Also very rewarding.

    Thanks Linda.

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  9. Brenda PruittFebruary 7, 2009 at 4:22 PM

    I haven't had to deal with them since last fall. But they're due any time now.
    Brenda

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  10. Barbee'February 7, 2009 at 5:14 PM

    Thanks, Deb, I didn't know DE would kill them. I needed that info! Thanks again.

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  11. Aunt Debbi/kurts momFebruary 8, 2009 at 7:45 AM

    Brenda, Maybe you won't this year. If so, go get some DE and dust them with it.

    Barbee, It takes a couple of days to kill out a big mound, but it does work. Just keep disturbing the pile and dusting the suckers.

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  12. AnonymousFebruary 8, 2009 at 8:29 PM

    Fire ants, eh? Dig 'em up, DE dust 'em, pour boiling water over 'em, sprinkle grits on the mound, or try the aspartame or carbon dioxide techniques and unfortunately all you do is kill a few (or a lot) of worker ants. Meanwhile the ones you don't kill have spirited away the queen or queens and the brood to make other satellite nests through their up to 20m long underground foraging tunnels. And stimulated a new breeding flight in response to your pressure. And quite possibly made them mad and worried too, which tends to increase the potency of the venom available when they sting. Clever huh? As with most ant infestations, you HAVE to kill the queen or queens, and the best way to do that is using a fire ant specific bait product. Spinosad and BT are pretty green, but I don't know if BT is reliably effective on fire ants. See www.extension.org for a lot more clues . . .

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  13. Aunt Debbi/kurts momFebruary 8, 2009 at 9:25 PM

    macadamia man, as the fire ants kill fleas and ticks, I let them live just not in my home or compost pile nor any other place I need to work. I have used spinosad with limited success. I would rather evict them. I think you must have missed my previous post about making them move. I will not kill all my good bugs just to take care of fire ants.

    We just have different points of view.

    Have a nice day.

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