Thank you, Mary, I appreciate your quick reply. I will have to get some.

I have tried the grits...did not work for me
Boiling water has been helpful, (not a cure either for me) but I add liquid dish soap so the little ^%$#@*(&% not only boil, but also suffocate.

Hope you find something that actually works for you

Not organic but the basic ingredient is a pyrethroid -
Bengal (dust) Fire Ant Killer works and one cannister can treat up to 75 mounds. Use only 1/2 to 1 teaspoon per mound. Go back in a few days to treat any satellite mounds that appear.
Here is a link to explain side effects/toxicity of the main ingredient Deltamethrin.
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheet...

If you can treat the mound and place something like a carton or milk crate over the treated area it might prevent animals including birds from being exposed.

After you get them under control a way to keep them away is mulch your raised beds with coffee grounds. I get garbage bags full from Starbucks.

Carefull with coffee grounds, they grow a nasty mold where i live. Try stirring up the mound then add boiling water with soap. Or put bait on top of the mound so they eat it faster than birds can get to it. Im a fellow Fl cracker living in Costa Rica and theres tons of ants. Ive gotten them to either die or move with these ideas.

eferguson.

Please take a moment and update your profile. Include your location and your zone. That way, when you post something, your location will always show in the upper right hand corner. It always help to know someone's location with posting questions or answers.

I use powdered bait on the mounds and 6 mo. slow-release over the entire yard. This controls the fire ants very well.

Welcome eferguson. You can be as specific or vague as you like in your identity, although it is helpful to know your general region. I'm not enamored with my postal city (I live in the outlying rural area) so tempered it with my region - the Pacific NW. Others simply state their home state or country. Likewise, some folks only state their first name, or first/last, or just stick to their screen name. Whatever you are comfortable with.

Welcome, eferguson!

Thank you for you suggestions.

Ken - What is the 6 month slow release that you use?

@eferguson

I loved my brief trip to Costa Rica. I hope someday I can revisit. So beautiful.

Becky, I think it is Ortho Fire Ant Killer.

Using some thing like that Ortho Fire Ant Killer runs the risk of killing off a host of other beneficial insects in your yard, though. It's never a good idea to "nuke" your whole yard with a blanket treatment. You may see temporary relief, but in the long run if you kill off the beneficials, you may make the whole matter worse..

We had a wonderful entomologist, Dr. Fred Santana, at the Extension service here for years, and he used to give a 2hr. seminar on ants every year. It was the most popular class every year, and I took it twice before he retired because he was one of those guys that was just like a little kid when he started talking about bugs.

All the "instant kill" insecticides and things like boiling water don't really get rid of the ants, they most often just make them move and create another nest. The proven way to get rid of fire ants (and most other ants as well) is to find what bait they will take and keep putting out a little more bait until you no longer see any ants. Some ants will take a sweet bait like Terro, or the water/sugar/Boric acid home-made version. Other ants like a protein bait, and some ants change their diet from one season to the next. So you need to put out bait (a tiny sprinkle on a mound for fire ants) and stand there to see if they start picking it up. In general, fire ants don't take the sweet baits. They like a granular bait and the most effective one of those is Amdro. But it must be fresh! If you open a package of it and smell a rancid smell, take it back to where you bought it! Amdro is not an organic-approved bait though, but since it is a bait and you use it very sparingly, most of it is consumed by the ants and doesn't get out into the system. More is not better. A light sprinkle usually does the job well.

We had a product called Come 'n Get It recommended as an organic alternative bait to the standard Amdro bait. We're not allowed to use anything but organic pest controls at the school garden, and it worked well the first time we applied it, but unfortunately we got a second batch that was not fresh and the ants didn't take it. A couple of months into our school year, we started seeing ants again, and they weren't going away. So again, source it locally don't buy it online, and smell it as soon as you open it to make sure it's not rancid or it won't work.

We compromised by using Amdro outside the fence of the garden, and the ants went for it. Never seen any birds taking that bait, but I like the idea of putting a box or bucket over the mound after you've treated it until the bait is all gone.

Elaine - I agree. I have no intention of baiting my entire yard. So I had nixed that idea.

I do use Andro fire ant bait and it does seem to work. I hadn't thought about going bad though. I have a package that is open now and will probably go bad before I am able to use it up. Drat! That stuff is not cheap either. But it works!

I do often think though that the ants just move to a new spot in my yard, I also have a carpenter ant problem. The ants are my biggest issue. I wished I had a large property so I could move bird feeders far away from the house. I believe that is what attracts the ants. I also have hummingbird feeders which is another problem with carpenter ants. They like sugar!

I don't know, Becky. I sure had lots of ants even before I had bird feeders. Plus, I never seem to see any ants around my feeders. They seem to be in and around the house more. They start to come into the house when it gets dry outside, in search of moisture I think.

I agree about the hummingbird feeders, but does the sugar water leak out of yours? Mine always seem to be pretty well contained. Still I hang mine in a tree, not from the house. I don't see many ants on it either.

Fire ants really like very sunny locations for their nests. Maybe if you plant more trees you'll see less fire ants?

beckygardener said:...I wished I had a large property so I could move bird feeders far away from the house. I believe that is what attracts the ants. I also have hummingbird feeders which is another problem with carpenter ants. They like sugar!

I have feeders close to the house and even on the house and never had many ants attracted to them; I feed the birds just about everything, even fruit in the warm months. About hummingbird feeders, ant moats keep them out. I've seen ants crawl up the shepherd's hook, but they cannot stand water so end up going away.

This is one type of ant moat I use, but this specific one was filled with jelly for the Orioles because I had so many that year, so I used an ant moat as a feeder. Usually you hook one above a feeder and have it filled with water.

I find carpenter ants IN my sugar water feeders. I have ant moats, but the carpenter ants are so big that they still manage to get into the actual hummingbird feeders and they get stuck in the water and can't get out until I clean the feeders every few days. Then they go down the sink drain with hot water.

Fire ants are everywhere it seems. They are all over the school grounds where I work, too. This is the worst I have ever seen them. I don't mind the other ants. But carpenter ants and fire ants .... I do NOT like at all! I want them gone from my yard. Period.

I don't have a single mound on my property and haven't had one since mid-summer. My problem is that my next door neighbors are not at all aggressive in eliminating fire ants from their yards, so it is a constant battle for me to keep them away. I am not allergic to their bites but gosh, it sure does hurt when one bites me and the bite produces a nasty sore that lasts for days.

I'm in Louisiana. Fire ants have been a plague here for a long time. I use a product called Bifren. It is not organic. It is not toxic to birds or animals. I broadcast the areas of my yard that doesn't have clover. I treat hills directly in the clover part. Kick over the hill and sprinkle a few grains and the next day the hill will be dead. The reason I don't use it where the clover is because I keep honey bees. Broadcast it will keep the fire ants down all summer. This stuff works better than anything that I have tried. Compared to Ortho or Bayer products it is cheap.

I have never seen or even heard of Bifren, @Jim41. I need to look it up. Thanks for the information.

Jim, take a moment and go into your "Profile". Add your location and/or your USDA zone. That way, when you post, your location (city/state/zone) will show in the upper right hand corner. Knowing someone's location is usually helpful when reading a post.

@Jim41, I'm orginally from Louisiana & now live right over the state line in Arkansas (about an hour from Shreveport). Small world!!!!

I have used the grits & the hot water & they work for awhile. When there's alot of rain it brings them back, I'm guessing due to flooding their tunnels. Like the Africanized bees, they kill the native species, are more aggressive, & serve no purpose (in my opinion).

I use FOOD GRADE Diatomaceous Earth (DE) for myself & my dogs (until I ran out & keep forgetting to get more). Months ago I sprinkled some on a large mound. I haven't seen any ants but I'll sprinkle more just to be on the safe side.