Fire ants in the garden...

[IkemanTX]

This year was my first year gardening and the wife and I decided to do all organic. I am relying on compost and mulches a lot and the ants have decided that it's the perfect habitat for them. I have one bed that is essentially a 5'X8' fire ant bed. I finally broke down and used an ant killer on the whole bed hoping there's enough time for it to wash out of the sandy loam before spring. To make things worse, I have a hot compost pile going and they are using the heat from it to keep the colony going like it isn't even winter yet.

Does anyone have any good, organic methods for controlling them? I've gone through about 10lbs of diatomaceous earth, and it doesn't seem to slow them down.


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[Charles]

Demitries (SP?) earth or corn meal or PEE on'em

[BrianL]

Don't plant okra. Not sure what it is about that plant but fire ants LOVE them.

[Blackmouth]

Boiling water with a few drops of organic dish soap works pretty good.

[dgrantlpc]

Diatomacious earth, DE, horticultural, not pool grade. Orange oil and liquid molasses mix. Look up The Diet Doctor, Howard Garrett. Great website!

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[dgrantlpc]

Oh, and Equal, the blue packets. Sprinkle around the mound.

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[dgrantlpc]

*Dirt Doctor

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[IkemanTX]

Diatomacious earth, DE, horticultural, not pool grade. Orange oil and liquid molasses mix. Look up The Diet Doctor, Howard Garrett. Great website!

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Nice call on the diet doctor reference... I don't think I'll use his drench, because I don't have access to compost tea and the orange oil also repels/kill earthworms. But, the dried molasses and nematodes sound like awesome ideas.


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[dgrantlpc]

Nematodes work great! Also kills fleas!

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[Brazman]

IT'S DIRT DOCTOR. I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS. ;-)

I've had some fire ants jumping around in my front yard last year. I've had success pouring a big pot of boiling water over them with a few drops of Dawn and some olive oil. It's so satisfying to kill half the colony with the hot water. The rest regroup and move several feet over, and I do it again. Eventually they left my hard, too hostile!

[Hammerdown15]

My thought was dish soap. I've used this method to kill small mounds in the yard. I'm not sure how effective it would be on a big pile of compost or an entire garden.

[IkemanTX]

IT'S DIRT DOCTOR. I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS. ;-)

I've had some fire ants jumping around in my front yard last year. I've had success pouring a big pot of boiling water over them with a few drops of Dawn and some olive oil. It's so satisfying to kill half the colony with the hot water. The rest regroup and move several feet over, and I do it again. Eventually they left my hard, too hostile!

Apparently iPhone corrects the word dirt to diet when it is followed by the word doctor. Just tried it 3 times in a row and it changed the first two. Hopefully it has learned I want to say DIRT doctor.


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[dgrantlpc]

I forgot to mention that liquid molasses as a diluted spay will also run off fire ants. They HATE it! A nd it stimulated the growth if beneficial microrganisms in the soil!

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[dgrantlpc]

Mine too

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[Reds015]

Usually the cold drives them deep this time of year. I've noticed this warm winter has been keep lots of mounds above ground