Posted on 03/10/2020 6:53:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Armadillos carry leprosy.
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo
Armadillos are often used in the study of leprosy, since they, along with mangabey monkeys, rabbits, and mice (on their footpads), are among the few known species that can contract the disease systemically. They are particularly susceptible due to their unusually low body temperature, which is hospitable to the leprosy bacterium, Mycobacterium leprae. (The leprosy bacterium is difficult to culture and armadillos have a body temperature of 34 °C (93 °F), similar to human skin.) [17] Humans can acquire a leprosy infection from armadillos by handling them or consuming armadillo meat.[18] Armadillos are a presumed vector and natural reservoir for the disease in Texas and Louisiana and Florida.[19][20] Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th century, leprosy was unknown in the New World. Given that armadillos are native to the New World, at some point they must have acquired the disease from old-world humans.[18][20]
The armadillo is also a natural reservoir for Chagas disease.[21]
Not NEARLY as much fun as my gasoline fueled water pistol!
I take a can of Bengal, put the red straw in the mound, give it 2-3 sprays and poof. Dead ant hill.
I’ve used gasoline and bug spray. A neighbor used a shop vac and extension cord to get rid of ground hornets. He would sneak up in the night or morning and put the tube right by the hole in the ground, wait until daylight when they were flying in and out, and plug it in. He put a rag soaked in wasp killer in the chamber.
FReegards
Sprinkle dry Cream of Wheat on the mound. They take it into the mound and feed it to the queen and she explodes when it reacts with moisture.
What I learned from our honeymoon. About fire ants, and that there were armadillos in the south too. All the way up through TN.
I always figured that the spread of armadillos must be due to spread of FA.
Bring on the armies, before FA reach MD!
Casting a Fire Ant Mound With Molten Aluminum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xvsxarw-J0
And then you sell the cast as abstract artwork...
Bkmk Fire ant
Until The “Department of Homeland Security came about and got all draconian and paranoid about letting us peasants have useful stuff, there was a product called “Durham’s Red Ant Balls” that was cheap and worked great. They were Sodium or Potassium Cyanide, depending on which was cheapest when they were buying the raw materials for any given production run..
And rather than killing your grass... they were about the best fertilizer I ever saw: Everywhere I used them, within a couple of weeks, the grass was lush and grew about three times as fast as the stuff a little further away. (Although I’m not sure I’d want my cattle, sheep, goats etc. grazing on it.)
Years ago I cleared my central Florida house lot of FA using a product called “Fire Ant Extinguisher”. An aerosol can with a long plastic straw, you ran the straw down until it stopped, withdrew an inch, and discharged for a few seconds.
:(
(Tiny screen—continued from above)
‘Eliminated every mound with one can! Years later, one mound came back, but the product had disappeared from the shelves.
:(
Well, I don't live in Texas so I don't have to even THINK about them any more.
I haven’t heard WORD ONE about fire ants from my Texas friend. If they were still a problem I would have heard from her...or from her son and daughter-in-law.
Use of the match not necessary. Just pour on the gasoline. The hydrocarbon vapors, being heavier than air, sink down the tunnels and asphyxiate the little pustule-raising demons, including the queen. The small circle of grass will still die and regrow.
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