How to get rid of imported red fire ants in the garden Many folks believe that pouring boiling water over a fire ant colony with do the trick. This might work for a small colony, but the problem is that as the boiling water passes down through the soil, the temperature drops dramatically. What usually happens is the ants at the top get killed, but the ones at the bottom survive, and the colony will bounce back in no time. The most effective way to kill fire ants is to make the following mixture and then drench the colony. Mix 1 1⁄2 ounces of orange essential oil, 3 ounces of liquid dish soap and 1 gallon of water. This will kill all ants that come into contact with it, and unlike boiling water, this method will continue to work over several hours/days. This method works because orange essential oil (actually all citrus oils) contain an extract, d-limonene and this extract kills imported red fire ants. To make this method even more effective you can try adding a few handfuls of molasses, as this will entice any ants to the mix, that were initially missed by the drenching. Orange oil can be expensive, so another way to make this mixture is to use orange peels. You can actually also throw in some lemon and lime peels as well, but I would say go for at least 50% orange peel. To make the fire ant killing mixture, simply fill up half a 1 gallon container with the citrus peels and then top up to 1 gallon with water and leave for 4-7 days. Then just strain the mixture to remove the peels, add the liquid dish soap as above, and you’re ready to go. This method does require a lot of citrus peels, you’ll need to save them up, or you could ask a local restaurant or better yet, a juice bar, to give you their waste peels.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 04:04:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015