Cary - what do you use to make these turkeys move on? I swear I don’t think they “get dead” but if I can move them, I’m happy. We have used Down and Out and it seems to work. Just wondering if there is anything else that I can gleefully utilize. Thanks!
Be glad to share.
This won't make them move on, it's deadly to fire ants. Once you start using this you will be known throughout the ant world as a mass murderer. Wanted for war crimes.
The chemical you will be looking for (so look for the ingredients on the label) is "Acephate".
At our local farm and ranch, Scruggs, they keep it on pallets as you walk in the front door. Which comes in a quart size type paint can. They also carry it at Walmart made by Ortho, called Orthene and comes in a brown plastic jar. Which Walmart sold in a twin pack this year.
Once you buy it and start to open, hold it away from you, it stinks to high heaven, like rotten eggs. It's a white powder. which you sprinkle over the mound. I sprinkle enough to make the mound close to solid white. And then out a couple of inches to cover routes in and out of the mound. Do not add water.
I've got a pack of cheap dedicated tablespoons for measuring chemicals and started out using a tablespoon to sprinkle, but now just do it straight out of the jar/can.
They don't recommend doing this, but I have found doing this ups the success rate to near 100%. And that I get a stick, long enough to go way into the mound and still have my hand clear, and poke a hole in the mound and fill it with the Acephate. If you do it, in the AM the mound will be dead by Afternoon.
However I still don't disturb the mound. I give it 24 hours for any escapee's which will build back usually within a 10-15 foot radius. So I know where to look. And by then the mound is falling apart.
Acephate is an "insecticide" so it doesn't hurt your lawn or plants. They have gotten into SB's potted flowers outside, and I've sprinkled some in them, mostly to make them move, out in the open where I can get to the mound, without doing any harm.
People use Ice, gasoline, diesel, etc. and it will kill off a bunch of ants, but mostly they just move, since the queen is still alive, and you just can't get to the bottom where she lives. Those worker ants will sound the alarm of danger, and she will be gone in a heart beat.
They see this as food, and carry it to the queen. It sticks to them and they clean each other, regular ant doings, without seeing the harm in it. So no alarm.
If you've got mounds in your garden, and are worried about cross over contamination, It's an insecticide so I wouldn't worry about it hurting humans, but some people worry about that, which is fine, I'd still do those in the garden and then just mark where the mound was and skip around that spot next year. One year should be enough to keep cross contamination from happening or being still active.
The cost at Scruggs was around 13.00, and the double at Walmart was like 22.00.
Also if you have a lot of mounds, it may take a couple of years to get the mound population down due to migration.
And I stay on top of mine, by riding fence most days when I can, and as I do that (for the exercise) I keep a check on known mound hangouts. And do an ark light strike as soon as I see one.
BTW at this time of year it may be hard to find at Walmart. They will be putting up Christmas decorations and taking down lawn care.
Hope that helps.
