Gotta be more redneck..................
Posted on 03/27/2014 6:43:30 AM PDT by listenhillary
This is one horror film plot that may be all too real: Billions of voracious ants are about to descend on the Houston area, destroying entire homes and anything else that gets in their way.
Rasberry Crazy Ants, even more destructive and mobile than their angry cousins, fire ants, are just weeks away from descending on the largest city in Texas. Since 2008, the ants, which entomologists believe came to Texas from South America aboard a cargo ship in the 1930s, have expanded their presence to 27 counties from just eight. Once in a home, they zero in on electrical systems, chewing through insulation and causing short circuits and general havoc.
“I’ve been in houses where every time you took a step you’d literally be stepping on thousands of ants with each step,” exterminator Tom Rasberry told FoxNews.com.
The hairy, reddish-brown ant is named after Rasberry because he was the first one to spot the insect in a Houston suburb in 2002. The ant, also known as the Tawny Crazy Ant, is even known to fight the fierce-stinging fire ant, another Texas scourge. Dormant until late April, Rasberry Crazy Ants thrive as temperatures heat up, prompting fears of a new advance in the coming weeks.
Continued
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Biological warfare against insects is both high and low tech.
The low tech part is bizarre, basically getting 500 gallons of a type of insect in a stainless steel vat, mashing them, then seeing is anything grows on the mash. If it can eat the mashed insects, it might be able to eat the living ones.
The home, low tech version, used against fire ants, is to get a quart glass jar, put some honey in it, and set it next to an anthill. When there are a bunch of ants in it, pour in some boiling water to kill them, seal the jar, and put it in a cool, dark place for a couple of weeks. Then, when a fungus or something grows on the water, pour the water over the nest. Typically it will wipe out both that nest, and several other nests within about 10 yards.
It will be a bit trickier with crazy ants, since they do not make obvious nests, just using small holes in the ground over their massive, underground nest. However, it would be worth it to try the same technique.
Worth a try.
Gotta be more redneck..................
I don’t know if it will work for these ants but a friend of mine leaves opened packages of artificial sweetener around and it kills fire ants that eat it.
We used grits in SC on fire ants...pretty effective...cheap and worth a try...
There is also a product called Terro, a borax powder mixed in a syrup that ants love...we used it to eliminate two nests that were under our foundation and coming into the house and it eliminated another that was coming in from the neighbor’s house.
great product.
I won’t use anything else...
It is a bit problematic in a way though...the ants SWARM to the bait so you need to feed them extra to keep them from wandering away from your baited area...
Then after a couple of days...nothing...then a few days later another, slightly smaller swarm arrives (hatched eggs)....a few days later...nothing...then a few days later, another, even smaller swarm arrives and we repeat the cycle maybe one more time until NOTHING.
Think I’ve seen her pic before. Doesn’t she make cigars in Cuba?
Diazinon was great until they outlawed it.
Homeowners need to immediately rent “The Naked Jungle”, once again Charlton Heston can save the day! I kind of like the ant flambe method.
Terro is good - and that outfit has Deltadust, which I’ve heard is also very good.
Works on some ants:
Peanut butter mixed with diatomaceous earth
OR
Peanut butter mixed with Sevin dust
Did you have all the alarms set at the same time and woke up the entire neighborhood?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.