Working in the Yard Today

After cutting the yard, trimming and spraying some herbicide, I decided to take care of some fire ant mounds.

I've tried a few different baits, but they seemed to chase the fire ants to new locations. My solution was to go a local feed store and see what they had. They only carried one product and said it works.

The directions called for sprinkling two or three table spoons of the granules around the mound and on top. After the granules were sprinkled, it required pouring up to two gallons of water around and top of the mound.

I went home, opened the bag, fetched a small scoop and went to work on the first mound. After sprinkling, I followed the directions, poured the water and moved on to another mound. I repeated the procedure and went to another. After this mound, I returned to the first to see how what was happening. I was surprised by the result.

The ants had gone berserk. Those that weren't curled up, or in the throws of death, were rushing around or fighting with other ants. The stuff was working, so I went about my business of eradicating ants around the yard. After about ten mounds, I couldn't find any others, so I went back to the first to see if the effect was only temporary and the ants were recovering.

The first mound had no living ants. As I watched, a large drone wandered into the treated area. Within seconds, it was in obvious distress and within minutes was curled up and barely moving.

Considering the amount I have left, I won't have to buy any more poison this season. Time will tell if the product works. If it does, I've sure wasted some money on other poisons over the years.