Fire ants in compost

[ElizabethB]

Ok - you have all inspired me to be more conscience aboout chemical use. My lovely compost is infested with fire ants. My normal solution would be to sprinke Ortho and kill the suckers. Now I realize that I am also killing my worms and much needed microbes. BUT I can not have fire ants in my compost or garden. So - what now? How do I kill the queen without killing the worms and microbes? I was tossing my pile in order to add it to my boxes when I found the beast. Fire ants really are a bain for southern gardeners. I am all ears and waiting for your best suggestions.

Thanks All

[rainbowgardener]

we've had the fire ants in compost topic before:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/v ... ts&start=0

suggestions made so far include:

crab meal
diatomaceous earth
spinosad
pouring boiling water into it (LOTS)
cinnamon
coffee grounds
stir and flood

anyone have any others to add?

Here's something I just found:

My favorite remedy for fire ant piles in general is to find a second colony of ants and dig the whole thing up with a shovel and drop in on top of or next to the other ant pile. Stir them both up real good so both colonies are nice and mad. Ants are territorial and more often than not they just annihilate each other

Sounds like it would make a good show anyway! If it works, it would have the advantage of eliminating TWO fire ant colonies.

Elizabeth, let us know what you try and how it works.

Most of the time, I bemoan my cold winters and short growing season. My garden is currently covered in snow. But it does mean I don't have to deal with fire ants or a number of other insect pests the Southerners write in about.

[erins327]

Hey hey, Texas here and I feel your pain!

We get them occasionally in our garden, especially in the summer times.

I make sure the keep the compost nice and wet, ants don't like a wet environment. Also, just keep your compost turned. If they cannot establish a community and area for the Queen to settle, I feel like they get frustrated and leave!

[The Natural]

Fire ants in Louisiana are adapted too high water conditions. I know from experience, Ive seen them riding on floating piles of other dead ants during floods in the past, they are brutal insects. Water logging them might keep them ran off but if they are bedded in good, water might be a useless fight.

I'm having the same problem, I found someone else saying fine grits and cornmeal will kill them. I'm going too make a mix of both and use tomorrow.
The theory is they carry the grit/meal too the queen she eats, and all the drones eat and it swells them and they die. Ill post how it goes.

[Bobberman]

Put several of the round metal ant killers around or in the middle of the compost under a bucket or lid to stop the rain from getting them wet! The ants will go into the holes of the metal and carry the poison back to the queen and other ants! Its simple it will kill the hole colony! They use them in the home. They will not hurt the worms only the ants!

[rot]

..
A bunch of poisoned ants in a compost pile? Being consumed by the things in the compost pile? Do I want that? Hmmm?
..

[Bobberman]

The poison is not that strong and I doubt that once the ant dies it will do anything to the worms!.Are the ants bad for the compost or will they break up the materials and help make the compost better! Ant hills always have fine dirt around them!

[The Natural]

Another option which I'm going too attempt if this rain would ever stop

I'm going too convert my add-as-you-go compost to a Hot compost and keep it steamy maybe this will detour the little buggers!I too kind of worry about the poison, I wouldnt care so much in my flowers and around my shrubs but in my veggies or berries I could imagine small traces of poisons being absorbed.

I cant say for cetain the poison even kills the ants or just runs them around the yard lol. But even with poison I still havnt found 100% sure fire menthod of ridding the ant problem.

[ElizabethB]

Ortho powder (the stuff that stinks) does kill the pile but my concern is killing worms and microbes. I forgot about the trick of moving ants from a different pile. When I had my landscaping business I had a client that refused to use any chemicals in her 4 acre garden. I did the trick with moving ants from one pile to another. It kind of worked. Right now they will just have free reign. To busy caring for George after his knee replacement surgery. I can see that the garden will go to junk. G is demanding and requuires 24/7 care. I am thinking about bringing a chair to the garden so he can sit there and tell me how to do what I already know how to do. I must be nuts to subject myself to such abuse.

Oh well - good thing I love my man.

[PHONETOOL]

I found a colony of black ants in my pile so I'm going to try and dig them out if that doesn't work I will try to pour boiling water on them
if that doesn't work then as I use the compost I will lay it out on some plastic and let the sun get to it for a few days before using it. The ants will probably scatter away out of the compost than it will be ready to use.

[cynthia_h]

@PHONETOOL: It's very unlikely that you have fire ants in Los Angeles. (Although who knows? They may have appeared via container cargo in the last year.)

"Black" ants are usually the small ants that will react to cinnamon. Although I'm a definite proponent of putting boiling water into ant nests, I've never put boiling water into my compost: it would kill the worms and the detritovores, to say nothing of sterilize the microbes ("compost critters") helping to make the compost.

Fire ants are significantly larger than regular ants and they BITE. Repeatedly. If one starts biting you, others will join in; it's probably a pheromone signal they send out.

The two best sources (price-wise) for cinnamon I've found are Indian groceries, where you can buy it in bulk, and Costco, which has a very large plastic container of it. The Indian-grocery cinnamon is excellent for cooking with; I haven't tried the Costco cinnamon for cooking (b/c I haven't purchased it; I got enough from Milan Market and Bombay Market in Berkeley to hold me for quite a while).

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[Gary350]

Fire ant bite stings pretty bad because it is a strong acid. The best cure is laundry ammonia, pour ammonia on arms and legs rub it in for 30 seconds.

We have fire ants in Arizona, even the tiny little ants that are so small you can barley see them bits and the sting is pretty bad.

Ants live down in the ground usually about 3 ft down. Dig them up with a shovel. If you remove the gueen the ants all die.

[rainbowgardener]

In responding to a new fire ants post we had, I found this and thought I would put it in here as well:

Organic Control - Drench with the fire ant control formula - compost tea/molasses/citrus oil. . Many gardeners report good results with instant grits, Malt-o-Meal and other instant break fast cereals. Spraying products that contain molasses helps keep them away. Apply beneficial microorganisms. Laboratory tests have shown that the beneficial fungus Beauveria bassiana is effective against fire ants.
https://www.dirtdoctor.com/Organic-Fire- ... _vq123.htm

[ElizabethB]

I have been away for a while - not physically just zoned out with repotting my patio plants. Since my original post the rain has come and thankfully washed the ants from my compost pile. I did find 3 mounds in the yard. I did the trick of scooping ants from one pile to another. Did not work. How I hate those beast. Did the boiling water thing and bleach and vinegar. Those nasty critters just laughed at me. Ortho here I come. Watch out nasty beast you are dead!!!

Sorry to offend the purist out there - I know chemicals are a big time NO NO. I really have been trying to eliminate chemical but OMG fire ants are my nemesis - they eat my lunch. Hate them. Will do whatever I have to do to get rid of them. My hands are covered with pustules from ant bites. The suckers were in one of my pot plants that needed potting up. They ate me up before I saw them.

Sorry for the rant but my hands are covered with ant bites and I am not a happy camper.

[drh146]

I did the borax and powdered sugar. Although it doesn't completely eliminate, it does greatly reduce amount and aggressiveness. Then I just kept the compost pile (or garden or pot) watered and mixed up, and they are gone... Well at least to non problematic areas of the lawn

Now in the garden when I see one (or two or any) I quickly squish them between my thumb and index finger. If the scout doesn't make it back, the herd can't follow

Since October last year, all is pretty under control, but its only march. Time will tell