Before we had fire ants, we had ticks, zillions of ticks: seed ticks, dog ticks, deer ticks, lone star ticks. Before we had fire ants, we had many other species of ants, quail and other ground nesting birds, bunnies, lizards, and puppies under the porch, all of them devastated by the invasion of fire ants.
But since fire ants are easier to kill than ticks, get to know and love your fire ants!
Many methods for natural, organic fire ant control have been tried, but all are expensive and most have failed. The only way that has worked for me has been drenching the mounds with lye soap --- cheap, effective, and harmless to plants or children. A case of strong lye soap bought 10 years ago took care of all the fire ants on 10 acres, with soap left over.
You can make your own lye soap, a smelly and potentially hazardous process using hot grease and caustic chemicals, or buy it by the bar or the case from online suppliers like Mist Soap in Abilene, TX.
Here's how to do it: Melt 1/4 bar of lye soap in 5 gallons of water overnight, stir it up, and pour onto the mounds, first circling the perimeter of each mound to prevent fire ants escaping, then drenching the center to soak all the way down to the queen.
One bucket of lye soap water will drench 2 or 3 mounds for about 50 cents, the hard part is toting those buckets out to the back of the property, a good upper body workout.
Happy Gardening!
~Marcia Cash, Traveler in Thyme
Always love to hear your comments and stories, contact me thru email, my Facebook page, or my Yahoo group, traveler-in-thyme.
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