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Post by lyles on Jul 29, 2015 5:09:11 GMT -5
Tonight has been a rather unpleasant night.
I woke up covered in fire ants :angrymob: The floor and bed was full of them, with concentrations at the food dish and the stashed away pieces. The ferrets were sleeping in the tunnel, with Alice with mess all over her back end because she tried to potty in the dig box but got it on her. So I had to first rinse off Alice while brushing fire ants off me, then spray all the ants I can find (I have a bathroom cleaner that kills bugs faster than any bug spray), then clean the dig box, then clean the spots where I sprayed (so the ferrets don't get poisoned). Now I have to wait till my roommates get up so I can vaccume.
At least the ferrets are ok and weren't bitten by ants, they were actually happy and Alice was hopping around and playing like normal, which is a relief, but now I got all these fire ant bites all over me. Ugh.
I'm going to have to buy baits and hide them under places where the ants can go but the ferrets can't. Any of you have any good ideas how to keep ants at bay? If they would eat at the dish there would be no problem, I could use a moat to keep the ants out. But both are stashers so meat is going to be on the floor. So I need to poison the ants or deter them without poisoning the ferrets.
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Post by unclejoe on Jul 29, 2015 7:45:57 GMT -5
Owie. We fight fire ants all year long, but never see them in the house. Other ants, yeah. My advice is to go to a DIY pest control store if you can and ask what's best. I got some stuff there that works on the other ants we get. Some are protein eaters and some eat sugar.
If you find the nest in the yard, there's only one way I've found to get rid of them for good. Whenever I use baits and granules all they do is pack up and move. So I decided to fight fire with fire. I sprinkle 2-3 oz. of gasoline on the nest and let it soak for a few seconds, add a few more drops and light. Let it burn itself out. You may have to stir the mound to burn completely. This hasn't failed yet. I used to have a dozen nests that I kept chasing around and now I have 0. If the grass does get burned, it will recover.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2015 8:57:21 GMT -5
Oh Geez, fire ants are the worst. Those bites really hurt. You need to find the mound outside where they are breeding. I'm looking around now for some safe remedies. I'm tagging unclejoe |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2015 9:13:31 GMT -5
oh my god. fire ants are terrifying! It sounds like something from a horror movie. ;A;
Its a good thing the ferrets weren't hurt. I hope you weren't hurt either. They have a nasty sting... ;n;
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2015 9:24:32 GMT -5
Oh my god. I hate fire ants. I hope you can find a way to get rid of them (without setting your house on fire lol)
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Post by lyles on Jul 29, 2015 9:34:51 GMT -5
That cleaning spray I used killed them instantly and I haven't seen any more since then (I sprayed all along the edge where I suspect them coming in). This is an old house so there are lots of cracks for them to crawl into. I didn't see any nest, it could be in the wall. We had one fire ant nest in the attic!.
I'm going to get a few bait traps and put one under a spot where the ferrets can't reach.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2015 9:38:53 GMT -5
As a person with a phobia of ants, I guarantee this will be my next nightmare. I want to go shower and burn everything now.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2015 11:17:15 GMT -5
They say ants like to eat fleas ----don't know which one I would rather deal with.
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Post by FireAngel on Jul 29, 2015 12:45:56 GMT -5
Oh that's horrible! I hope you find a safe solution soon!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2015 18:38:50 GMT -5
Ants do eat fleas, but only when they're dead in my experience...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2015 19:06:18 GMT -5
So sorry to hear that happened to you! I'm glad you weren't physically hurt worse. My grandfather lived in Florida (after being a snow bird for many years) and fell into a fire ant hill. He had to have veins repaired in his leg from their bites. I remember when I used to visit my grandmother and him, there were tons of fire ant hills between the main path of their trailer park and the pool house. I used to think it was great fun trying to dodge them. I look back and face palm at myself.... but I digress. I had to put in a strick no food stashing of any sort here. I was spotting some icky insects, mostly flies.
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Post by lyles on Jul 29, 2015 20:21:09 GMT -5
So sorry to hear that happened to you! I'm glad you weren't physically hurt worse. My grandfather lived in Florida (after being a snow bird for many years) and fell into a fire ant hill. He had to have veins repaired in his leg from their bites. I remember when I used to visit my grandmother and him, there were tons of fire ant hills between the main path of their trailer park and the pool house. I used to think it was great fun trying to dodge them. I look back and face palm at myself.... but I digress. I had to put in a strick no food stashing of any sort here. I was spotting some icky insects, mostly flies. I'm at the itching stage now, where the boils haven't formed yet but the skin itches so bad you want to flay yourself lol. Every now and then I find a stray and wondering and every 5 hours they start to gather at the food dish, but I haven't seen any gather at stashed food. It's going to take time for the baits to work, so I'll just have to keep everything clean as much as possible until they die off. Surprisingly, I haven't seen any flies, and this is the peak of fly season here. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2015 9:13:29 GMT -5
So sorry to hear that happened to you! I'm glad you weren't physically hurt worse. My grandfather lived in Florida (after being a snow bird for many years) and fell into a fire ant hill. He had to have veins repaired in his leg from their bites. I remember when I used to visit my grandmother and him, there were tons of fire ant hills between the main path of their trailer park and the pool house. I used to think it was great fun trying to dodge them. I look back and face palm at myself.... but I digress. I had to put in a strick no food stashing of any sort here. I was spotting some icky insects, mostly flies. I'm at the itching stage now, where the boils haven't formed yet but the skin itches so bad you want to flay yourself lol. Every now and then I find a stray and wondering and every 5 hours they start to gather at the food dish, but I haven't seen any gather at stashed food. It's going to take time for the baits to work, so I'll just have to keep everything clean as much as possible until they die off. Surprisingly, I haven't seen any flies, and this is the peak of fly season here. That sounds miserable. I hope you can find something to put on the bites. Here is my fire ant story. We lived in Florida and I was in elementary school. We were taking pictures and I kept feeling something tickle me, but we were suppose to hold still. Right after the pictures were taken, I looked down and there were fire ants up to my behind. I was covered in them. Everyone rushed over to brush them off and I got picked up and hurried to the showers and had my first fully clothed shower. I was young and happily can't remember how much it hurt. |
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