Discussion
I don't talk much about how to get rid of unwanted ants, but I would like to suggest the least destructive (to native ants and other arthropods) method of killing an ant colony:
Targeted liquid baiting.
All ants prefer liquid foods to solid foods and when several ants discover a large food source the whole colony will attempt to collect it all. This means sugar water with borax can be an effective way to kill the colony.
@futurebird
When I was a little kid in Alabama in the early 60s, my dad would take me to see the fire ant bombers, a literal small air-force of surplus WW2 bombers repurposed to drop poison on fire ants. I'd love to know their tactics, if they did a lick of good (the ants came anyway) and what damage they might have done. I loved seeing the airplanes though!
based on the history I've read of the fire ants war this strategy was terrible and didn't work well since it killed all arthropods. It didn't target the fire ants.
In reality it may not have been possible to stop them, and more productive to teach the public how to live with them and mitigate their spread.
But no one wants to hear that "lawns cause fire ants to spread"
@futurebird
I don't doubt that some of this can be attributed to the over-use of pesticides by the local, increasingly industrial, agriculture. Alabama is not generally known for its environmental awareness. Sigh. My home state, you never fail to disappoint me.
@futurebird As a kid I was fascinated by insects, and would leave the porch light on at night (drove my mom crazy) and go out to observe what showed up. Originally, you could probably go out and see a hundred or more species (a few rare and exotic) around any outdoor light on a summer night. Now I go to visit family, and both the numbers and diversity are vastly reduced. We also used to have tons of toads in the yard that ate the light-attracted insects. I haven't see those recently either.
@futurebird
I kind of guessed as much. As I said, the fire ants still took over. I did notice the huge reduction in arthropod diversity, but had (seemingly incorrectly) assumed that it was the fire ants eating eggs and everything else in sight.
@futurebird I'm guessing that it's not possible to train a colony to avoid certain places (like your indoor areas). They did colonize one of my potted plants a couple years ago, but I managed to cut them off it (essentially with a moat) and they haven't recolonised it since, so it does seem like there's some amount of learning possible.
The bait station needs to be supervised. Don't let other creatures find it. Borax isn't harmful in small quantities to humans or pets like cats and dogs, but honeybees, and wild native bees could be attracted and killed by sloppy bait station use.
You can put it right next to the ant nest and supervise it so that only the ants find it, check that they have established a trail and are intent on collecting it all. And then your fire ants are doomed.
Say a little prayer for them.
@futurebird there used to be a product in the UK called Nippon ant killer. I think it was sugar water with borax. But it came in a little bottle, with a flat circular container with small holes around the circumference. The instructions said to open the container, put a coin inside, and put a few drops of the magic liquid on the coin. Then close the container. Ants would swarm to it, but larger critters (bees, wasps, etc.) couldn’t get in. Top the coin up every day until the ants stop coming
Do not let the bait station dry out. The ants will ignore it. Do not just put baits all over the place and hope it will work. Follow the ants, find their nest and put the station nearby. You have decided to murder a super organism and it's smarter than you, you need to focus or you will fail and harm other things but still have fire ants.
As you wait for the ants to die, which will take two days think about what changes you will make to prevent them from returning.
You can't do much to deter ants by just killing some of the workers. If they are an introduced species, or in a place that just isn't tolerable you can either seal them out or kill the entire colony.
If there is a good location for an ant colony, soil or a cavity in a wall that is suited for ants with access to water, ants will find it and fill it, so you also need to eliminate the habitat. Spackle, fixing drippy pipes, choosing better lawn plants can all help.
Identify the species first too!
We used liquid bait to kill an ant colony in our walls. Holy crap!
We'd been using solid bait previously. After we put the liquid bait, we had these piles of dead ants appearing where we thought the entrance hole was--I guess the living ants throw out the dead ones.
This went on for two weeks and then no more ants.
We had the plumbing under the sink replaced which we think attracted them.
@futurebird
Here in the U.S. Terro sells liquid ant baits made of sugar water mixed with borax.
We constantly get Pharaoh ants when it rains a lot. Annoying little things they get into almost everything since they are so tiny.
I put little squares of wax paper on the counters and in cabinets where I see them with a drop of the bait. The ants gather like little cows around the drop and feed.
After a couple days the number of ants lowers then vanishes and I am set until the next invasion happens.
We had a pest control years ago who sprayed a band around the base of the house up the wall a bit that supposedly would keep them out. Found it did not work, the best way to control them was to feed them Terro when we noticed them.
They are just annoying, the crazy ants that chased off all the invasive red ants are a real problem. They are attracted to electric so they will fill outside outlets and short out air conditioner contactors and water pump pressure switches, .
Nothing like taking a shower in the morning and having the water peter out when the pressure tank empties.