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Killing Fire Ants
Off With Their Heads!
I suppose the real goal in fire ant killing is to kill that evil bitch--the queen. But before we get to that we usually slaughter the adults, children, infants and everything else that gets in our way. If we weren't talking about ants, it would be a war crime. For you People Eating Tasty Animals types, it's probably a war crime anyway.
Pour Boiling Oil on Them!
Okay so I have never actually poured boiling oil on fire ants. I think that exceeds the EPA guide lines for the degree of lethality that may be legally used against an insect.
I have poured boiling water on fire ants.
What do they do, you might ask?
They boil up out of the ground and attack the scalding hot water. This is instantaneously fatal to all who achieve their goal.
I had thought that pouring freezing cold water on fire ants would also work but the container I was trying to freeze water in burst and my wife was not amused.
Pour Corn Meal on them!
What?
Well I read somewhere that they eat it and it expands in their stomach and they die.
Maybe. It certainly did not seem to work quickly.
I got bored with this experiment in a few days. Maybe it worked. I was trying to find that colony the other day I couldn't. Who can say?
Pour Dishwashing Soap on Them!
They don't seem to like the stuff. And it appears to kill the few who drowned in it. But unless you get the really cheap dish soap so you can use lots of it, it's probably not your best bet.
If you have a place where you absolutely cannot use poisons because you or your pets or your family may suffer the consequences, dish soap can be an acceptable inhibitor. The ants don't seem to want to be where the dish soap is.
Pour Vinegar on Them!
The really don't seem to like vinegar. Experiment with different concentrations. I mixed up a weak dose of vinegar mixed with dish soap sprayed it though an spray bottle and they moved the mound.
I gave the straight dose of vinegar and the new mound is dead.
DrownThem like Rats!
As near as I can tell, there is not enough water in the world for this approach to work.
Use Over the Counter Poisons
This stuff generally works but you can't grow anything edible around it. Would you want to eat that poison?