[OP]
Member
Here in South Texas we have a lot of creepy crawlies, but one I wasn't prepared for is an ant about 1/4" long that seems to enjoy being electrocuted. At the plant I have to constantly clean out the HVAC contactors, or there little corpses will accumulate to the point that the points won't close. Lately the little buggurs have started moving into the light switches in our offices
Any one have experience with such, and suggestions(short of wholesale spraying) for dealing with this?
Member
Are they fire ants? We have all kinds of ants here in Florida and the only way I know to get rid of them is spraying. I use Talstar-P and spray my entire yard and bushes. It works but it's expensive!
[OP]
Member
Hi Robert
No they're not fire ants, I've got them too, but they stay outside. Had to dig through a nest of them to fix a leaking water line a few days ago.
Not fun!!!
Spraying isn't really an option, The owner' son is a "tree-hugger"(not that I have anything against trees) and we are an "environmentally friendly company".
These ants don't bite, but they do play hob with my electrical systems.
BTW for fire ants I learned from an old gentleman at the hardware store that ground up moth balls mixed with the soil will drive them off, won't kill 'em, just makes them go somewhere else. I mixed it in with the bedding sand on my waterline repair, and when I checked the hole for water, the ants were packing out, carrying eggs and larvae. Guess our neighbors are getting ready for a fire ant problem.
Can't use the camphor in the offices though, the "shirts and skirts" don't like the smell.
Contributor
Probably "crazy rasberry ants" moving south from Houston for the winterOriginally Posted by mickey cassiba
We've definitely got 'em. I don't know what to do about them yet, maybe the Aggies have come up with a method of control.
John
"Billions of electronic-eating 'crazy rasberry ants' invade Texas
It sounds like the plot of a farfetched science fiction movie. Unfortunately for the residents of Texas, it is very much a reality: billions of tiny reddish-brown ants have arrived onshore from a cargo ship and are hell-bent on eating anything electronic.
Computers, burglar alarm systems, gas and electricity meters, iPods, telephone exchanges – all are considered food by the flea-sized ants, for reasons that have left scientists baffled.
Having ruined pumps at a sewage facility, the ants are now marching towards Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre and William P. Hobby airport, Houston, putting state officials in a panic. “They’re itty-bitty things, and they’re just running everywhere,” said Patsy Morphew, a resident of Pearland, on the Gulf Coast.
She spends hours sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. “There’s just thousands and thousands of them. If you’ve seen a car racing, that’s how they are. They’re going fast, fast, fast. They’re crazy.”
Crazy is the the right word. The ants are known as “crazy rasberry ants”: crazy because they seem to move in a random scrum as opposed to marching in regimented lines, and rasberry after a pioneering exterminator, Tom Rasberry, who first identified them as a problem.
The ants – also known as paratrenicha species near pubens – have so far spread to five counties in the Houston area. Scientists are not sure from where they originate but they seem to be related to a type of ant from the Caribbean. “At this point it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ants because they are so widely dispersed,” said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist. He added that the only upside to the invasion was that the crazy rasberry ants ate fire ants, which sting humans during the long, hot Texas summers.
Unfortunately, the ants also like to suck the moisture from plants, feed on precious insects such as ladybirds and eat the hatchlings of a small, endangered type of grouse known as the Attwater prairie chicken. They also bite humans – although not with a sting like fire ants.
Perhaps their most remarkable characteristic, however, is that they are attracted to electrical equipment. Pest control specialists say that they are inundated with calls from homes and businesses now that the warm, humid season has begun, with literally billions of the ants wreaking havoc across the state. Worse, the ants refuse to die when sprayed with over-the-counter poison. Even killing the queen of a colony doesn’t do any good, because each colony has multiple queens.
The Texas Department of Agriculture said that it was working with researchers from A&M University and the Environmental Protection Agency to find new ways to stop the ants. "
Member
I guess the ants never read the "Dont Mess With Texas" signs. One day about a year ago or so, I had a mini-storage bay that I rented for a play woodworking shop. I opened the garage type roll up door and thousands just fell all over me. I almost %#$@ myself. I never noticed them walking all over the place. I dont know what kind they were, but they didnt bite and fire ant killer did get rid of them. Then, I did get some that liked my electrical box and the little 'ant traps' seemed to stop them. I just placed the traps all along any paths and potential paths.
Retired, living and cruising full-time on my boat.
Currently on the Little Tennessee River near Knoxville
[OP]
Member
John, I've seen the videos and reports about the rasberries, that was my first thought when we started having problems. We have several CNC machines and THEY would be disastrous! These are much larger. Almost like the winged ants but without wings. Plus, these don't seem to be eating any insulation, they just crawl between the conductors and die, becoming insulation themselves.
Tony, I've placed traps in the affected switch boxes, but only recently, so I'm not sure as to the effectiveness.
I've got a guy from the AG center coming out to take a look, and possibly advise, but since they mostly deal with crop problems, we're a pretty ;ow priority for them.
At the house I had fire ants, and at home we're not as "green" as we are at work. I poured about a half a gallon of old gasoline that had lost it's oomph( could not even light it with a match) down all the entrances I could find. No more ants! Don't think I'd try it with fresh gas though, don't want a crater in my yard!
We do import a lot of wood, I'm hoping these critters didn't hitchhike in...Hidalgo County already has the distinction(?) of being the first American nesting place of the Africanized honey bees. Heck they named our local Hockey team after them. Yup,Hockey in Deep South Texas!
Contributor
You're pretty far from Houston, so hopefully it's just those little ants I call "sugar ants". They are a nuisance, though.
Member
I have no personal experience with fire ants, but a friend from Georgia takes a scoop of fire ants from one colony and his buddy takes a scoop from another colony and they dump them on each others nests. Apparently ants from different colonies don't play so well together and they kill each off.
Member
They are almost telling you the truth there.
True that insects from different hives/nests will fight to the death but a scoop of a few thousand (maybe 100K) ants dumped into the nest of a few million don't stand a chance of killing the nest off.
Same holds true for my bees. If I shake a frame of bees from one hive into another hive they will fight, but the "host" hive (as long as its a normal strong hive) has enough reinforcement's to whack the "intruders".
As for a solution for the ant in the electrical circuits that should be "tree hugger" safe. Mix up some boric acid and sugar (about 50/50) with water to make a slurry and put in either in their path or around where the are so they find it. The trick is to let them eat it and carry it back to the nest to spread it around and kill the whole nest off.
Note that boric acid is also somewhat poisons to humans/pets if ingested in large quantities so keep people and pets from eating the mix. But it's also used in eye wash so that should give you and idea that it's not "danger... danger" toxic.
[OP]
Member
Cool! I had completely forgotten about boric acid...as to folks eating it, the folks in the office are supposed to be educated. Darwin's theories should come into play there. And nobody should be eating out of the HVAC units!!!They are almost telling you the truth there.
True that insects from different hives/nests will fight to the death but a scoop of a few thousand (maybe 100K) ants dumped into the nest of a few million don't stand a chance of killing the nest off.
Same holds true for my bees. If I shake a frame of bees from one hive into another hive they will fight, but the "host" hive (as long as its a normal strong hive) has enough reinforcement's to whack the "intruders".
As for a solution for the ant in the electrical circuits that should be "tree hugger" safe. Mix up some boric acid and sugar (about 50/50) with water to make a slurry and put in either in their path or around where the are so they find it. The trick is to let them eat it and carry it back to the nest to spread it around and kill the whole nest off.
Note that boric acid is also somewhat poisons to humans/pets if ingested in large quantities so keep people and pets from eating the mix. But it's also used in eye wash so that should give you and idea that it's not "danger... danger" toxic.
Thanks Dan. I'll give it a try.
Member
diatomaceous earth
natural non toxic product that looks like fine white flour
source=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth#Pest_control
The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of insects' exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate
Medical-grade diatomite is sometimes used to de-worm both animals and humans. It is most commonly used in lieu of boric acid, and can be used to help control and eventually eliminate a cockroach infestation. This material has wide application for insect control in grain storage.
Member
Go to a feed and seed store and ask for Acephate 75. Sprinkle a small amount along the ant trail and or nest and stand by. Ants will be dead in 24 hours. They don't migrate, but take the powder as food back to the nest and it kills the colony. Very effective.
Member
I run a retail garden center and have sold this stuff for years. It is the only thing that works and works well. I tell customers about it and they will come back just thanking me.
It is a thick clear syrup that the ants drink and take back to their nest for others to feed on. You have to get over the fact for a few days it will attract a lot of ants. Ants will be coming from EVERYWHERE!! but in a few days you will see less and less, then nothing.
The web site don't show it but they sell it in a small bottle that you just squeeze onto some scraps of cardboard. But the traps in the photo below work just as well and safer if you have pets around.
http://www.terro.com/
Last edited by Dave Lehnert; 10-17-2009 at 6:02 PM.
"Remember back in the day, when things were made by hand, and people took pride in their work?"
- Rick Dale
Contributor
it's even better to get the garden traps they last longer and don't dry out as fast.
we have a lot of black ants. I have lost more routers to ant nests.
Steve knight
cnc routing
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