[HairOfTheDog]

My rutabagas are up, but something keeps eating them before they get a half inch tall! I actually think it's ANTS!

Ruh roh!

FEAR! FIRE! FOES! AWAKE!

COLD TOLERANT FIRE ANTS

With no natural enemies outside South America, fire ants have spread across about 275 million acres in the past 80 years, mostly in southeastern United States. Isolated colonies have also been found in Delaware, New Mexico and California. They've also turned up in Australia.

The aggressive predators, which crowd out native ants, live in the ground and build mounds above their colonies. Fire ants feed on crop seedlings and can damage farm machinery by their mounds. When disturbed, they swarm out of their nests and sting repeatedly, and can kill newborn deer and quail hatchlings. Their stings usually cause only pain and discomfort to humans, but can prove fatal to people allergic to their venom.

Careful 2J... gardening is very dangerous!

[2Jedismom]

Once when we still lived in Texas and Matthew was a baby, he sat in a fire ant bed. We were living in a house that had a pool and we were out by the pool. My nephew looked down and saw Matthew covered with fire ants! He jerked him up and jumped in the pool with him! Still, he was stung about 50 times on his back.

[Sam Cree]

I kill fire ants by pouring mineral spirits on their nests. It works. 'Course it kills the grass completely too.