Help !!! Fire Ants !!!

   / Help !!! Fire Ants !!! #31  
I bought some Bifen-IT for a carpenter bees problem we had, and it worked great and fast. Used 2-1/2ozs /gallon of water for bees. I tried it on about 50 fire ant mounds my from lawn had which was maybe an acre or two.

I mixed approx 1-2 ozs Bifen-IT to 8 gallons of water in my water tank sprayer behind my garden tractor. I just drove around and sprayed a couple feet around each mound and then stuck the sprayer into the center of each mound and pushed it in while spraying while saturating the mound. That took care of them but I need to do that again each year to keep them in check.

If I was really fanatical about it I could just spray the whole lane with a good soaking but this method slows them way down, well enough for me.
How did the Bifen-IT work out for your carpenter bees?

We have 'em and have only found hitting them squarely in the head with a 16oz hammer works :) Those little guys are drilling holes in everything around here.
 
   / Help !!! Fire Ants !!!
  • Thread Starter
#32  
My neighbor put up carpenter bee traps and she said they were very effective. They were full of dead bees. And had to empty them several times.
 
   / Help !!! Fire Ants !!! #33  
Possums eat ticks and armadillos eat fire ants, I have to problems with either.

One problem with fire ants is that the $%^&*!!! things have mutated into multi-colonies where more than one queen can exist. Kill the queen and the colony will die out, but now it is a bit harder when you need to kill more than one.
 
   / Help !!! Fire Ants !!!
  • Thread Starter
#34  
Possums eat ticks and armadillos eat fire ants, I have to problems with either.

One problem with fire ants is that the $%^&*!!! things have mutated into multi-colonies where more than one queen can exist. Kill the queen and the colony will die out, but now it is a bit harder when you need to kill more than one.
Didn’t know that there could be more than one Queen ant. Also, I have had problems with armadillos digging holes around my foundation. So Mr. Mossberg has been having a brief one sided conversation with them.
 
   / Help !!! Fire Ants !!! #35  
Didn’t know that there could be more than one Queen ant. Also, I have had problems with armadillos digging holes around my foundation. So Mr. Mossberg has been having a brief one sided conversation with them.
They can be hell on gardens too. I just have 25 acres of woods so whatever critters I have don't bother me... except snakes. I have an S&W Governor with snake shot in the first chamber for just such occasions as needed.
 
   / Help !!! Fire Ants !!! #36  
Going to set out some yellowjacket traps today made from plastic bottles partially filled with apple juice and meat. Pesky buggers are multiplying fast.
 
   / Help !!! Fire Ants !!!
  • Thread Starter
#37  
I like using a 12 gauge, it rips them open and I get some satisfaction from that. Is that wrong of me ? Lol
 
   / Help !!! Fire Ants !!! #38  
How did the Bifen-IT work out for your carpenter bees?

We have 'em and have only found hitting them squarely in the head with a 16oz hammer works :) Those little guys are drilling holes in everything around here.
Bifen-IT worked great for Carpenter Bees. My 40x60 barn and any wood product, treated wood included, around the house were a feast for those suckers. There were so many holes in the rafters and joists that it would have been impossible to tackle them individually.

I read Carpenter Bees return every year to their home base so I sprayed in the early spring one year, then in the summer I sprayed again. Then the next year I repeated that again. That slowed them way down and I didn't find any new holes in the building. Since that spray regimen about 5 years ago I cut back to once a years in the spring kept them at bay. I still see them flying around but as long as they don't nest I don't care about that.

I sprayed my wood piles I use for the fireplace and my outdoor wooden furniture. I spray the decks, the overhang and around the shutters on the house. This spray takes care of wasps, spiders and termites among many other bugs.

I did build about 8 bee traps but had limited success with those, but since I started spraying the traps do nothing, so it works.
 

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