Officials battle 'highly aggressive' red imported fire ant infestation in Southern California

ABC ^ | July 24, 2024 | Leah Sarnoff

[crusty old prospector]

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Fire ants are a fact of life to the Southeast.

Better stock up on diatomaceous earth...

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Montecito is best known as a celebrity enclave with Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle among the town's residents.

Go, fire ants!

[crusty old prospector]

I would love to see the look on their faces after their first fire ant bite.

[Fai Mao]

You never get bitten by just one.

[KarlInOhio]

Excuse me, they are undocumented refugee fire ants.

[Bullish]

We’ve had the little bastards around here in SoCal for as long as I can remember.

[coloradan]

California has a problem with the newcomers? And isn’t calling them red racist?

[crusty old prospector]

We’ve been getting a lot of rain so the fire ant mounds are yuge. I poisoned over 30 mounds last week and there are at least ten new ones. I think that fire ant poison is krap. Gasoline is best but kills the grass.

[SpaceBar]

Probably hitched a ride on an illegal alien bedroll or backpack.

[Bullish]

Yup, they can sneak up on you, you’ll have them all over your legs before they start biting. It’s happened to me many times. I’m in Riverside county now, but we also had them when I lived in east Los Angeles county too.

[Blue Highway]

Chocolate covered fire ants, now with extra formic acid

[Bullish]

I always used gas on them too... It’s sure fire to eliminate the mound but they just burrow underground and come out 10 or 20 ft away and make a new one. They’re seasonal so you don’t see them at all during the winter and fall months.

[Jonty30]

Borax and icing sugar works every time.

[Deaf Smith]

Most likely brought in from out of state sod grass or bales of hay.

IF I ever had a reason to visit Kalifornee, I might bring a jar full of fire ants to dump on the side of a road.

[Bullish]

This reminds me of a recent occurrence... A friend of my brother’s had just retired from his job of 35 yrs or so. He was in his first few weeks of retirement and he went golfing. Well, he hit his drive into a deep rough spot, he found his ball and was taking some time to hit it. By the time he was ready to hit he started feeling fire ant bites all over his legs, they are very painful. Sad to say he had a heart attack right then and there and died.

Fire ants suck.

[Fai Mao]

Laundry bleach or ammonia are less of an environmental hazard than gasoline. Both will kill the ants.

The Andro takes a while to kill the nest but does work

[smokingfrog]

Make sure all those Californians know they’re 10x worse in Texas.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

What a great idea! Salt prime Southern California real estate with fire ants and killer bees! Oprah's house, Streisand's, Meathead's, Rosie O'Donnell's … so many targets, so little time!

[DesertRhino]

Get black Krylon spray paint. When they are out, spray them. When they go back down in the hole and see each other, they will stop working and kill each other!

Just kidding lol.