Natural Alternative Fire Ant Mound Treatment
Not Sold As a Pesticide
Treating individual fire ant mounds can be time consuming, but it is generally the most effective method of control. It takes from a few hours to a few weeks to “kill” the mound, depending on the product used. If many young mounds are missed, reinfestation of the area can take place in less than a year. The following describes how to treat individual mounds.
KLEEN FREEcontains a natural enzyme (protease) that is effective in repelling and eliminating fire ants quickly and thoroughly.
KLEEN FREE DIRECTIONS
Dilute As Follows: 2 cups of enzyme per gallon of water
FIRE ANT MOUND DRENCH: Make several holes with a stick or other object to accept the mixture; then flood the entire area KLEEN FREE ENZYMES. Following directions for dilution of the enzymecleaner, gently flood the mound and surrounding area with 3 gallons of diluted KLEEN FREE. Pour directly into the galleries.
TIP 1: The Queen ant will tunnel and burrow down to the bottom of the mound, then climb back up about 1/3 of the way and take residence on a ledge. Make sure the mound is thoroughly drenched with KLEEN FREE. Your objective is to remove the Queen!
TIP 2: Best to treat early in the morning. Fire Ants are slower moving early in the morning and very active and fast moving in the afternoon.
Mound drenches are most effective after rains when the ground is wet and the ants have moved up into the drier soil in the mound. During excessively dry weather, effectiveness of the treatment may be enhanced if you soak the soil around the mound with plain water or diluted KLEEN FREE before you flood the mound with 3 gallons of diluted KLEEN FREE ENZYMES. A simple way to flood a lot of mounds in your yard is to use a hose end sprayer and fill the container with KLEEN FREE cleaner.
TIP
Talcum power will repel them from you. Talcum powder and/or medicated body powder or napthalene will also control/repel fire ants. Also, don’t forget to caulk, fill or seal off any openings into your building. You can also use WD40 or vacuum up fire ants where it is not safe to use water sprays or foam or steam or carbon dioxide. Once a natural enemy or pathogen is introduced to a small area, it spreads quickly on its own - thus no professional from the poison industry wants to develop these extremely safe and effective pest controls - because there is no profit incentive. Reinfesttion can be expected every 6 months.
Some Fire Ant Facts
The black fire ant was accidentally introduced into the United States in 1918 through the port at Mobile, Alabama. The red fire ant came about 20 years later through the same port. Ships from South America, where the fire ants are native, are believed to have deposited them here, maybe through dumped ballast sand.
Fire ants look like ordinary ants, but their bodies and antennae are different. Their mounds can be more than 10 inches high, 15 inches in diameter and 3 feet deep. When disturbed they are aggressive and cause a painful singe that raises a small welt.
Fire ants inflict a fiery sting, which causes a small blister or pustule to form at the site of each sting after several hours. The blisters become itchy while healing and are prone to infection if broken.
If you are stung by a fire ant:
Apply a cold compress to relieve the swelling and pain.
Gently wash the affected area with soap and water and leave the blister intact.
People who are allergic to insect stings should seek medical attention immediately. On rare occasions, fire ant stings can cause severe acute allergic reaction (anaphylaxis)
First Aid: Try applying a mix of 1oz. of KLEEN FREE per 8oz. of water. Apply as often as needed to bite area.
About 5 Million Americans Are Stung Every Year!
In infested areas, fire ant stings occur more frequently than bee, wasp, hornet, and yellowjacket stings. Stepping on a fire ant mound is almost unavoidable, especially when walking in heavily infested areas. Furthermore, many mounds are not easily seen, with many lateral tunnels extending several feet away from the mound just beneath the soil surface. Ants defend these tunnels as part of their mound. More than 25,000 people each year seek medical attention for painful fire ant bites. The sting itself is usually not life-threatening, but secondary infections can result. To prevent infections do not scratch pustules and treat the sting with an insect bite remedy. Persons who are hypersensitive to the fire ant venom may experience symptoms such as nausea and dizziness or even shock or death. Individuals exhibiting such reactions to fire ant stings should see a physician immediately. About 1 dozen Americans die of their wounds each year!
A person who stops to stand on a mound or one of its tunnels, or who leans against a fence post included in the defended area, can have hundreds of ants rush out to attack. Typically, the ants can be swarming on a person for 10 or more seconds before they grab the skin with their mandibles, double over their abdomens, and inject their stingers. That is why some people die! This does not happen in their native land where the fire ants fear phorid fly species who only live to torture and kill fire ants. Phorid flies are being currently evaluated in Gainesville, Florida.
Although a single fire ant sting hurts less than a bee or wasp sting, the effect of multiple stings is impressive. Multiple stings are common, not only because hundreds of ants may have attacked, but because individual ants can administer several stings. Each sting usually results in the formation of a pustule within 6 to 24 hours. The majority of stings are uncomplicated, but secondary infections may occur if the pustule is broken, and scars may last for several months. Severe infections requiring skin grafting or amputation have been known to occur from fire ant stings.
Some people experience a generalized allergic reaction to a fire ant sting. The reaction can include hives, swelling, nausea, vomiting, and shock. People exhibiting these symptoms after being stung by fire ants should get medical attention immediately. Death can occur in hypersensitive or older or very young people. Individuals who are allergic to fire ant toxins may require desensitization therapy. First Aid: Try applying a mix of 4 oz. per quart of Kleen Free Enzymes per quart of water or a 1 to 1 mix of bleach and water to the stung area.
MORE FIRE ANT INFORMATION
Fire ants include a large group of reddish-brown to black ants that normally spread by one of the following methods: seasonal relocations, migration in nursery stock, natural flights, and after floods rafting on water. Ants can be blown by the wind 12 miles during mating flights. They can “hitchhike” on birds or mass together to form a floating ball to ride out a flood.
Fire ant workers are sterile females that range in size from .08” to .2” in length. The larger workers are called majors, the medium sized are called medias and the smallest size are called minors.All of the workers sting and inject a venom that causes blisters and allergic responses, including possible anaphylactic shock. A single fire ant can grab hold with its mandibles and then whip its abdomen down and sting multiple times, injecting the poison each time. They are now found in 11 southeastern states and over 25,000 people a year seek medical attention from fire ant stings. A fire ant mound can be 15" - 24" in diameter and 10" - 18" high and 1' - 3' deep with some tunnels extending 5' or more down to the water table and can contain 80,000 to over 250,000 workers. A.K.A. the six-legged scourge of the South. Talcum powder will repel them from you.
Fire ants are omnivores and will eat plant and animal material including mice, turtles, snakes, and other vertebrates, crops, plants, saplings, wildflowers, fruit, and grass but prefer insects. U. S. fire ants readily defend their mound. Disturbed or injured workers release alarm pheromones. There are four major species, two native and two imported, found in the U. S. from the Carolinas to California. Mating between the winged forms or alates takes place 300' to 800' in the air, usually in late spring or early summer. The males fly up first and wait for the females, after mating, the males die and the newly mated queens seek moist areas, normally within one mile of the mother colony. If the female lands on a suitable moist site, she removes her wings and digs a small burrow in the soil and then seals it. Within 24 hours the queen begins laying eggs, normally only 10 - 15 in the first cluster.
The queen ant can live up to 7 years and will produce up to 1,500 to 1,600 eggs per day throughout her life. Queens are the first to be fed proteins, so any fire ant bait has to be protein-based. Fire ants feed on honeydew, sugars, proteins, oils, seeds, plants and insects. Fire ants frequently enter and nest in houses and are attracted to water and electrical wires and their associated magnetic fields or impulses. They can ruin gas pumps, transformers, traffic lights, air conditioners, heat pumps and other electrical equipment. Locate ant activity inside by watching the ant trail and follow back to the void and treat with ant baits or dusts or diluted Kleen'em Away Naturally enzymes (2 ounces each per quart of water). They will kill plants by feeding on seeds or by girdling freshly planted nursery stock. Fire ant workers compensate for changing conditions, e.g., temperature and humidity by moving the larvae and queen to suitable locations within the mound. On cool mornings in the summer the queens are near the top of the mounds where it is warmer; as the day heats up the queens go deeper into the soil.
