Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fire Ants in Pond

Two years ago, during the drought in the West Tennessee area, we refurbished one of our ponds. It is eight acres and we drained two other ponds into that one. The two ponds that we drained remained dry until a couple of weeks ago, that was when we recieved over five inches of rain in a couple of weeks. All ponds (17) filled to capacity and two ran over the levies. One of the previously drained ponds swelled from a normal one acre to about three acres. Now we have a number of Fire Ant mounds floating in that pond. I read that fire ants will damage the intestines of fish that may consume them. No fish in that pond at this time but I was planning to use it as a grow out pond for CNB. Any one have any answers a how to get rid of these creatures. I cannot drain it as the 8 acre pond below has CNB, Black Crappie, Hybrid Stripes and Red Ear Sunfish.

Give it a week or so and the ant problem will take care of itself. The ants will drown from the water. They like moist areas, but typically they stay back from the edges of ponds and lakes.

Interesting thing about fire ants is that they don't bite, they actually sting and inject pure nicotine. The nicotine dissolves the flesh in the sting area which creates the white blister from the fire ant "bite". People used to put them in their chili here in Texas to give it a little more kick, but most have stopped due to some people actually having a reaction and dying from an overdose of the nicotine.

Many thanks, for your input. If we have to pump this pond out, we will have to pump uphill about 1000 feet. We could do this if neceary with our 6" pump that we named "Big Bertha"

Charlie

Nah, I wouldn't worry about pumping it out. Just give the ants a week or so to either move on or drown and then you can think about what you want to do. On another note, you most likely will have an infestation of mounds not far from the shoreline. Ortho makes some decent fire ant killer that I use on my place. Use a small scoop of powder and then 32 oz of water to get it inside the mound. They also make a bait that gets fed to the queen. Either way, as long as you don't go totally nutty with the stuff, you shouldn't see much of an effect on your pond.

I think it stinks that fire ants made their way as far north as Tennessee ! Us Texans are somewhat use to them, and have ankle battlescars to prove it...surely with modern technology it can't be that hard to crossbreed and sterilize them right ? hahahha, just what are those farming A&M guys doing ??? lol. Todd O.

They are probably wasting their precious time trying to figure out a way to win a Big 12 football championship...that, is funny

Fire ants are tough and tough to whip. A friend of mine, A & M PhD, got a contract to test a new fire ant bait/killer. During dry and hot summers the nest can be 15 ft. deep. He staked off an area of my land and started testing but had limited results.

Charlie, I've also heard that fire ants can kill the fish that ingest them but have never seen documentation. I wouldn't worry about that. Most likely, the ball will drift or blow to the shoreline. You can afford to lose a couple of small BG.

Dave, have you heard about the Texas A&M phorid fly project? The tiny tropical fly is 1 of the only natural enemies of the fire ant. They dive bomb ants and instantly inject a single egg into them that hatches into a tiny parasitic maggot. The parasite eventually decapitates the ant. When the flies hover around a fire ant nest, the ants totally freak out and refuse to leave the mound to forage. Enough pressure, and the mound declines and eventually dies. If the researchers could duplicate the sound of the fly(ants are largely blind), sound transducers could be placed in infested areas starve them out.

Yeah, I heard something about that. Just what are they waiting on?

They probably have to study the ecological impact of bringing in the little birds that eat the phorid flies to keep the latter from destroying every ant nest (fire or native) in North America.

Sometimes, I don't know myself whether I'm serious. This is one of those times.

Place a solution of 5% boric acid and 95% sugar/honey water in a weather proof position close to where the pesky ants/wasps can find it, the ants/wasps will swig up the mix, take it back to the nest and the acid in the solution they regurgitate will kill the pupae and the Queen that lays the eggs

Take care butterflies and moths, beneficial critters don't get at the bait

Regards, andy
http://www.members.aol.com/abdavisnc/swglist.html

I'm gonna try that.

I'm pretty sure that's the basic chemistry of Terro Ant Killer products . When we had the place on the Tippecanoe River, carpenter ants were the bug du jour. I can buy that stuff in a small vial for a couple bucks at Menards. I would cut off the bottom of a plastic disposable drinking glass to make a little dish, put a thin layer in the bottom, and leave it in the ant restarurant district.

I've been at war with carpenter ants for years. High priced stuff pretty well controls but doesn't eliminate them. I gotta try this stuff. As usual, overkill doesn't bother me.

I've tried everything on fire ants. They just laugh at my puny efforts.

My buddy used to attach a probe to a 5gal propane tank, and poke it deeply into the nest. He would turn the gas on low for 30-45min on each nest and put them to sleep. It took him several hours to rid his yard of nests. Multiply that times 100 for my land and it's not very practical.

Carpenter ants are a piece of cake. I've had a few infestations over the years, and a little bait does the trick. Speaking of bait, one day I ran out of crickets, and I used carpenter ants for bait. They worked pretty well.

They're not a piece of cake at my place. I have to stay on top of them with sprays and bait. I have never entirely eliminated them.

For a couple of mounds around the house you can put 2-3oz or orange oil to a gallon of water and pour over the mound. In the past two months orange oil has gotten pricey at $15/qt. The stronger you mix it you can actually watch them go into spasms and die in seconds.

ADVION Fire Ant Bait gets my thumbs-up for its speed and thoroughness in controlling both individual mounds and for broadcast treatments to larger areas. 1.5 lbs per acre is quite sufficient.
Unlike most insecticides, the active-ingredient in ADVION doesn't become "potent" until it has passed through the ant larvae's gut. The ants "recycle" their larvae's ... uh... crap ... and the results are devastating to the colony.
Just be sure to make applications when the ants are actively foraging - and avoid treatments immediately before expected rainfall.