# Importing Red Fire Ants



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Tripped across this Univ. Of Missouri video while looking for cattle and hay information. Thought it might be of interest to some folk of the Southern Persuasion on this forum.






Ralph


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I found two new colony mounds last week. I will poison them with FA bait when it warms back a bit so that as they forage and scour for food they will carry the bait deep into the mound and feed the queen.

I would think that you would be too far North for FA's Ralph, but maybe not. I can send you a jar full and you can experiment on your place if you would like. 

Regards, Mike


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Vol said:


> I found two new colony mounds last week. I will poison them with FA bait when it warms back a bit so that as they forage and scour for food they will carry the bait deep into the mound and feed the queen.
> 
> I would think that you would be too far North for FA's Ralph, but maybe not. I can send you a jar full and you can experiment on your place if you would like.
> 
> Regards, Mike


If you're going to send me some, dip them in chocolate first.

And, with the mild winter we've had, I would not be surprised to see them this far north soon. We already have armadillos migrating into the area.

We've only had about 1" of snow this winter and 2-3 days below 10 degrees. Ground has frozen only about 1" at best. Lots of mud.

Ralph


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## reede (May 17, 2010)

I'll be happy to export some to you as well, if you'd like to keep some good hybrid vigor in your herd.


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## reede (May 17, 2010)

One thing I do note: First hay cutting of the year, little puffs of orange go up regularly from when the disc mower hits the mounds. By the end of the season, there isn't a fire ant mound to be found in the hay fields. However, the fence lines in between, and between hayfields and pastures, are nothing but one solid fire ant mound. Not fun working on fences in those conditions.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

reede said:


> One thing I do note: First hay cutting of the year, little puffs of orange go up regularly from when the disc mower hits the mounds. By the end of the season, there isn't a fire ant mound to be found in the hay fields. However, the fence lines in between, and between hayfields and pastures, are nothing but one solid fire ant mound. Not fun working on fences in those conditions.


One mound I found was in the fence line and the other was at the edge of wheat.

Regards, Mike


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I think it's propaganda to keep the southern hay producers beat down ......them hay bales they kept showing in the barn ain't the ones you need to be worried about however.....doubt seriously they would be the culprit. Them ones stored outside will almost certainly have a fire ant in them down here....


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

Vol said:


> I found two new colony mounds last week. I will poison them with FA bait when it warms back a bit so that as they forage and scour for food they will carry the bait deep into the mound and feed the queen.
> 
> I would think that you would be too far North for FA's Ralph, but maybe not. I can send you a jar full and you can experiment on your place if you would like.
> 
> Regards, Mike


Mike what are you using on your mounds?

I've seen several mounds already this year since the rain started, we've had 7.05" of rain already this year. Ag. Ext. agent says they'll start coming up higher as the water table rises and they'll build taller mounds.

Thanks


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## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

I've tried every bait there is, only seems to make them move 10' away... I found that disturbing the mound often will soon run them off good...

It was so dry last summer the mounds were few & far between almost none....


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Grateful11 said:


> Mike what are you using on your mounds?
> 
> I've seen several mounds already this year since the rain started, we've had 7.05" of rain already this year. Ag. Ext. agent says they'll start coming up higher as the water table rises and they'll build taller mounds.
> 
> Thanks


I will look tomorrow as to brand....I get it at my co op.

Regards, Mike


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

Grateful11 said:


> Mike what are you using on your mounds?
> 
> I've seen several mounds already this year since the rain started, we've had 7.05" of rain already this year. Ag. Ext. agent says they'll start coming up higher as the water table rises and they'll build taller mounds.
> 
> Thanks


I have noticed our mounds coming back since the rain. I had hoped the drought had killed them. I never thought about the mound needing to be above the water table.

I feed them the granules for fire ants. I have to repeat a few times as it seems to knock them back a little at a time. I also spray them with the cattle fly spray solution. The fight is never ending.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

We are also supposed to have our hay checked by an Extension Agent if it is sold out of state. I agree with Dawg that leaving rolls of hay out side becomes an ant magnet.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Tim/South said:


> . I had hoped the drought had killed them.


Tim

Now that's what I'll call ""very wishful thinking""on your part.  Floods or drought won't rid oneself of those aggravating little devils


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

Tx Jim said:


> Tim
> 
> Now that's what I'll call ""very wishful thinking""on your part.  Floods or drought won't rid oneself of those aggravating little devils


The mounds did go away, at least for the months of drought. Now we have mounds rising again.

Our State Dept. of Ag. released 3 species of tiny flies that prey on fire ants. The ant predators are from the countries where fire ants originated. The native countries do not have the fire ant infestation we see here.

It has been about 3 years and we are seeing a decline.


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## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

Well I made a road trip down to Statesboro GA today, man I saw so many ant hills it wasn't even funny, almost every sign post had a 2' tall hill, fields were full of hills, and there was a lot of water standing in ditches ... man I hope it doesn't get that bad up my way ...


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

SCtrailrider said:


> Well I made a road trip down to Statesboro GA today, man I saw so many ant hills it wasn't even funny, almost every sign post had a 2' tall hill, fields were full of hills, and there was a lot of water standing in ditches ... man I hope it doesn't get that bad up my way ...


They had the blower in the 'boro huh....home of Georgia Southern University, probably a few purty girls around town! Nice little city....I've had 3 younguns (and a lot of $) go thru GSU


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Tim/South said:


> The mounds did go away, at least for the months of drought. Now we have mounds rising again.
> 
> Our State Dept. of Ag. released 3 species of tiny flies that prey on fire ants. The ant predators are from the countries where fire ants originated. The native countries do not have the fire ant infestation we see here.
> 
> It has been about 3 years and we are seeing a decline.


Syrphid flies... nasty little buggers for what they do to them, but their fire ants, so they deserve it...

They hover over the mounds and tunnels and the paths that the ants take when they're out foraging. When they see a fire ant, they swoop down and land on the back of their head, and rapidly lay an egg inside their heads. When the larva hatches out of the egg, in then consumes the "brains" of the ant and their heads dry up and fall off-- then the larva pupates inside the "skull" of the ant and emerges as an adult syrphid fly to continue the process...

Syrphid flies exist in the native habitat of the fire ants in South America-- the ants don't get wiped out because they modify their behavior to avoid falling prey to the flies... they start foraging at night so its harder for the flies to predator them. Nature always finds a way...

We got fire ants here west of Houston in the late 70's/early 80's... we used to make all our hay as idiot bricks; Grandpa would bale one day and he and Dad would pick it all up off the field and stack it on the trailer and move it to the barn the next day... It got SO bad that by the time you picked a bale up off the ground and set it up on the trailer, you had ants halfway to your elbows. Grandpa solved that problem-- it was already getting hard even back then to find any help to hire to get hay off the field and into the barn, so he bought one of the first round balers in this part of the country... that was way back in like 81 or '82. Traded the old Ford 530 baler on it... never looked back.

They were REALLY bad here for awhile-- when they first come into an area, they overwhelm all the native ant species and basically drive them to near-extinction... then as time passes the other species come back and reach a sort of "equilibrium" with the fire ants. Sometimes they decrease, at other times they increase. They prefer the wet weather to prolonged hot and dry weather-- they are after all a rainforest species...

They arrived in Shiner on the farm there with a year or so, and while we don't like them, it wasn't ALL bad... they virtually wiped out the big red ants that were common on the place, and black widow spiders and scorpions also became FAR less prevalent as well. Also there's a lot fewer snakes than when I was a kid-- I haven't seen a rattler at Shiner in about 25 years. Haven't hardly seen any snakes around here, either... the ants can sting a small snake to death and will eat the things. We get some prolonged dry weather in Shiner, though, and you start seeing a LOT more black widow spiders and scorpions... they seem to thrive in those conditions as the fire ants do worse... when it's wetter weather, it's the opposite-- fewer black widows and scorpions and more fire ants. The fire ants were really bad up there too for about a decade and now they've tapered back, and the big red ants are back... not that they're any better... hate the little [email protected]

The only thing that REALLY seems to stop them is the COLD... they cannot take the really cold weather where the ground freezes for any length of time or to any depth, not that I've seen...

Later! OL J R


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Fire ants or something annihilated the Bob White Quail in N TX. Red ants are definitely on the rebound.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

OL JR,

That's really interesting. Never knew ants could kill a snake. 
I can't stand all that bug, snake, ant shit you have to put up with. 
Since we have COLD weather up here, the animal species and how they interact makes it very safe to hike in the woods or work outside. 
I did get bitten by a black widow on the pectoral 2 years ago and it was really bad for about a week. 
They love to hang out in hay barns. Never saw the thing or felt it bite me.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

JD3430 said:


> OL JR,
> 
> That's really interesting. Never knew ants could kill a snake.
> I can't stand all that bug, snake, ant shit you have to put up with.
> ...


Interesting... how then do you know it was a black widow?? Just curious not being a smartass...

Yeah, it can be fun. Fire ants can kill practically anything they can get on in sufficient numbers. Baby snakes are fairly easy for them if they want to eat them. I've even lost calves to them-- they'll sting them in the eyes to blind them and just keep stinging them until they weaken and die. Nasty little SOB's.

They're h3ll on hay equipment too, lemme tell ya.

They were actually a beneficial insect in cotton, though... they'd climb up through the plants and sting and kill anything they could get ahold of... caterpillars, eggs, grasshoppers, plant bugs, boll weevils, lygus bugs, aphids, etc. just about anything not too quick for them (like fleahoppers). They usually didn't kill too many aphids though-- they secrete a sugary fluid from a gland on their back that the ants will suck up... some ants are even known to protect aphids from other predators (like lady beetle larvae who eat them voraciously) and "farm" them like cattle, "milking" them of the sugar they secrete from their back. If the aphids get to be too many in number for their needs, then they'll even kill them for food (meat), just like we raise cattle for milk and meat...

Later! OL J R


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

The reason I came up with a BW is because I have some of them in my barn. I got a raised infected area shortly after rolling a bunch of bales into place by hand in the barn. Next few days it got bad and I went to my doctor thinking it might be Lyme disease (had it twice). 
He tested me for Lyme telling me all along "it's not Lyme, but just in case, let's test you". Once it came back negative he told me it was a spider bite, probably a BW. 
I trust him. He was a corpsman in the military. He said he's seen all kinds of bad bug bites and told me he was 90% sure it was a BW. We really don't have much else that could cause that kind of rash, swelling and black & purple skin. 
I was surprised how small they are


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

We supposedly have them (black widows) in my area, never seen one or a brown recluse which we are also supposed to have.

A decade ago or better I was selling campfire wood to the campers a the park, wasn't a bad gig, would make $200-400 a weekend in cash, would spend all summer in ht woods cutting dead elm, then after our 50 acres was cleaned out started working on all the neighbors woods that butted up to ours. All that time in the woods I never had a tick attach, also never had chiggers. Lots of garlic and other spices in the diet makes me even nastier than normal I guess.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

I got bit by a Brown Recluse about 2 months back. It hurt something awful and the drainage from the wound stunk so bad it almost made me want to upchuck when I'd eat food. I ended up having to take three different types of antibiotics.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

JD3430 said:


> The reason I came up with a BW is because I have some of them in my barn. I got a raised infected area shortly after rolling a bunch of bales into place by hand in the barn. Next few days it got bad and I went to my doctor thinking it might be Lyme disease (had it twice).
> He tested me for Lyme telling me all along "it's not Lyme, but just in case, let's test you". Once it came back negative he told me it was a spider bite, probably a BW.
> I trust him. He was a corpsman in the military. He said he's seen all kinds of bad bug bites and told me he was 90% sure it was a BW. We really don't have much else that could cause that kind of rash, swelling and black & purple skin.
> I was surprised how small they are


Well you mustn't have Texas Black Widows then...

During the last drought I moved an old tractor tire, and when I rolled it over, in between the two lugs that were next to the ground, was a BW web (kinda funnel shaped). Damn thing's abdomen was as big as the end of my thumb!

Last time I had to do some work under my Dad's mobile home, well, his old one anyway that had skirting put on it by the company (none of our other mobile homes ever had skirting, and I see why-- skirting makes the underside of the house the PERFECT environment for bugs n varmits... Anyway, pulled some skirting off the side to get under the house to work, and lo and behold there was the biggest BW I'd ever seen just over my head... thing would have covered the palm of my hand...

Dad's best friend across the road got bit on the @ss by a BW in the outhouse when he was a kid... his momma (who was from the old country and only spoke Czech) grabbed him and threw him in the bed and put every blanket and quilt in the house on top of him... in 100 degree heat with no AC back in those days... sweated it out of him...

Course my Dad's sister and brother in law visited the farm at Shiner one time with their little girl (oldest cousin, long before I was born) and she got stung by a scorpion... her Dad was a cash register salesman from South Carolina who her mom met in San Antonio when he was in the Air Force and he had been selling cash registers for National Cash Register in Chicago since he mustered out, and when she got bit by that scorpion, he threw her in their 66 Cadillac and drove about 100 mph on the dirt roads into town to the hospital... darn near killed them all fishtailing the car all over the place. The doctor just laughed-- he'd seen one too many movies and thought scorpion stings were deadly-- not around here... like a bad wasp sting... Rubbed some alcohol and gave her an analgesic and sent her home...

Later! OL J R


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Tx Jim said:


> I got bit by a Brown Recluse about 2 months back. It hurt something awful and the drainage from the wound stunk so bad it almost made me want to upchuck when I'd eat food. I ended up having to take three different types of antibiotics.


Yep them's some nasty buggers... the flesh just ROTS where they sting you...

Later! OL J R


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

luke strawwalker said:


> Yep them's some nasty buggers... the flesh just ROTS where they sting you...
> 
> Later! OL J R


Ignore it long enough thinking your vitamins and immune system will knock it out, and you will find yourself at the hospital with a plastic surgeon cutting out the rot and sewing in a drain.

Do not ask me how I know.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I'm feelin the pain..... Don't want no part of the recluse


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

somedevildawg said:


> I'm feelin the pain.... . Don't want no part of the recluse


Maybe another advantage of living up here in the 'colder' portion of our country? Never seen one.

Larry


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

r82230 said:


> Maybe another advantage of living up here in the 'colder' portion of our country? Never seen one.
> 
> Larry


Small bodied brown spider with long legs, with a tan colored "fiddle" shaped mark on their back or belly...

Later! OL J R


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Found this chart on spiders. Pretty quick read and ID of their appearance 
Says black widow only 1/2" body.
http://www.termite.com/spider-identification.html


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I've seen the widow larger for sure.....the recluse is small but very deadly. Ironically one of the most poisonous of the spiders is the grandaddy long-leg....just can't deliver the poison.....have had a plenty crawling on me


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Australian funnel spider is so scary, I couldn't live there.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

JD3430 said:


> Australia .... is so scary, I couldn't live there.


Me, either. Australia has 11 of the 13 most poisonous snakes in the world!

Ralph


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## Dan_GA (Dec 29, 2015)

I can't remember the name of it, but there's a pesticide you can add to your 2-4D application that will handle business on the fire ants. I don't spray my own fields yet (contract it out) but I can ask my sprayer for the info.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Grateful11 said:


> Mike what are you using on your mounds?
> 
> I've seen several mounds already this year since the rain started, we've had 7.05" of rain already this year. Ag. Ext. agent says they'll start coming up higher as the water table rises and they'll build taller mounds.
> 
> Thanks


Well I guess being three weeks late versus tomorrow is not too bad....Grateful, you asked me what kind I use and It is Amdro....lot's of places carry it or can get it.

Regards, Mike


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I am having a severe problem with fire ants this year.....I asked my son to talk with his friend that is in the Pest control business and he said to use Termidor.....and soak the mounds with a spray(outdoors only). Seems this stuff was created for sub-terrainian termites....makes sense. Of course this stuff is stout so it would be a imperative to wear a respirator and be fully clothed to be safe. He said I could get it at our local co op.

I have mounds popping up badly in the straight alfalfa fields and along the field edges/transitions. Noticed them especially bad along the edges of the wheat.

Regards, Mike

http://www.diyproductsdirect.com/Termidor-SC-20-oz-p/DIYTERMSC.htm?gclid=CIC-_azzt9ICFYEYgQodX0UNQw


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