A taste of REW's Texas

[ziggy29]

Just took this picture after noticing it when doing some work in the back yard:

Fire Ant Superhighway! It actually goes across our entire property, from the neighbors' goat pasture on the side of the property, diagonally to the back of the property toward the nursing home behind us. On our property alone it's a nice long highway of nearly 100 feet. I'm not sure Ike got the Interstates built this quickly...

 

[REWahoo]

I hope they aren't heading south...

 

[Rustic23]

I think they are on the way to the hill country.

 

[Gumby]

I hope they aren't heading south...

I have a vision of you burning furniture to keep them out.

 

[W2R]

I remember those Texas fire ants!! They were so aggressive. We have fire ants in Louisiana, too, but they are so different. They don't spread as much and they aren't as aggressive. I haven't used anything for them in the seven years since I bought my house, and I have no fire ant mounds. I have never seen a determined line of them like that since I left Texas. In Texas, I swear we had several mounds that were over a yard in diameter and we used the fire ant bait regularly. They made mowing a dangerous activity.

And then there were the brown recluse spiders....

(psst! just deposit the money in my Swiss bank account, thankyouverymuch...)

 

[REWahoo]

I have a vision of you burning furniture to keep them out.

I'm recreating scenes from "The Naked Jungle"...

 

[REWahoo]

(psst! just deposit the money in my Swiss bank account, thankyouverymuch...)

 

[NW-Bound]

It actually goes across our entire property, from the neighbors' goat pasture on the side of the property, diagonally to the back of the property toward the nursing home behind us.

OMG! Will these elderly be able to outrun these ants?

 

[freebird5825]

I read up on these beasts at Fire ant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sometimes the snow starts looking pretty good...

Do they chew the ground cover plants to create their superhighways?
How do you get rid of them if they invade your lawn ?

I saw some fire ants once during my one summer living in FL. I saw a line of them marching along the ground while on a lunch break. The ants I knew about were black and moved randomly.
I had no idea what they were, so of course I wanted to get a better look up close. Luckily a fellow mechanic stopped me. Whew!

 

[NW-Bound]

See the following excerpt from the link FB provided. Freebird, how's the RE market up where you are?

Wait! In a recent post, you mentioned something about black flies while you were working in the yard?

No place to hide!

First, the economy, then this. If it's not one thing, it's another. We are doomed!

Recently there has been a large spike in the Fire Ant population of the southern United States. Environmentalists have predicted that before April 2010 the Fire Ant Population will have increased by nearly 40% in the United States. The Ants are believed to be coming from Mexico and contain a much more poisonous venom than other fire ants, thus causing many states to start emergency programs to destroy fire ant colonies before they spread.​

 

[ziggy29]

The Ants are believed to be coming from Mexico and contain a much more poisonous venom than other fire ants, thus causing many states to start emergency programs to destroy fire ant colonies before they spread.[/I][/INDENT]

Sounds like Swine Flu, Part Two...

 

[Dawg52]

I used to blow the little bastards up with firecrackers as a kid. If that didn't do the job, a little gasoline and a match did the trick. Of course my mom didn't care for all the brown spots in the yard.

 

[NW-Bound]

I used to blow the little bastards up with firecrackers as a kid.

As an adult, do you use your shotgun?

Just kidding. I found many uses for firecrackers as a kid.

 

[freebird5825]

Freebird, how's the RE market up where you are?

Wait! In a recent post, you mentioned something about black flies while you were working in the yard?

Is your skin crawling yet?

The good news is the black flies go away after a while. The worse that happens is some swelling where they bite you.
I'll take that over this anyday. Sheesh!

 

[NW-Bound]

And that person survived to take the picture. Who knows how many did not make it.

I am telling you, if these ants honor political boundaries, the citizens wouldn't mind letting Texas secede.

 

[bbbamI]

As an adult, do you use your shotgun?

Just kidding. I found many uses for firecrackers as a kid.

If he has, I'm sure his neighbors have brown spots in more places than their yards....

 

[Purron]

I had a very unfortunate encounter with fire ants as a child when my family lived on Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. Still have nightmares about that.

On the bright side, did I see a four leaf clover in the pic?

 

[Sarah in SC]

Yep, we got RIFA here in SC as well. The baits like Amdro work pretty well, but on a slow day, some gasoline is also lots of fun.

 

[Gumby]

I used to blow the little bastards up with firecrackers as a kid. If that didn't do the job, a little gasoline and a match did the trick. Of course my mom didn't care for all the brown spots in the yard.

I did once set the side of the house on fire using the gasoline cure for ants. I was 14 years old and my parents were not amused.

 

[Leonidas]

I did once set the side of the house on fire using the gasoline cure for ants.

We had a freeway shut down one morning for an accident and I managed to find the fire ant pile in the middle of the freeway. Don't know why the little bastards were there in the middle of 16 lanes of concrete, but they were.

Anyway, after I shed my boots and beat the stinging creatures off my legs, the fire fighters standing nearby told me about one of their buddies who used gasoline to get rid of some fire ants at his home. The buggers had burrowed underneath the concrete walkway leading to his front door, so he poured some incredible amount of gasoline around the edges and let it soak in real good, before he struck a match.

Every time they tried to tell the story they would start laughing so hard that I couldn't get the details, but fire, explosion, hospital and idiot were among the words I managed to pick out.

 

[NW-Bound]

When living in my first house, bought when I was in my early 20s, I had some tough time with some gophers. The darn creatures burrowed through my nice front lawn that I covered with "Tif", a hybrid Bermuda that was often used for golf courses. They tormented me, and caused grief to no end. I tried poisoned grains and traps but nothing worked. They just pushed these out of the holes, along with a fresh mound of dirt. Remember the movie Caddyshack. It was not funny when I watched it.

One afternoon after work, I smoked their burrows with several gas bombs. My neighbor ran out to watch. As we stood there watching, we saw smoke coming out from his yard, actually at the base of one of his yucca plants. Cursing, he ran back to investigate. The gophers had dug over to his yard and ate all the roots of his plants, which fell over as he shook them.



PS. Found the following in Wikepedia. Sounds like FUN.

A concussion method kills gophers instantly with a shock wave. Specialized equipment used by trained operators wearing personal protective equipment injects a mixture of propane and oxygen into the gopher burrow. An igniter on the end of the injection probe explodes the fuel mixture, destroying not only the gophers, but the burrows as well. It sends a fireball and intense shock wave throughout the tunnel network.

 

[Midpack]

I spent a few years as a kid growing up in San Antonio, presumably somewhere near REW. Was playing at a construction site and slide down a pile of dirt right into a fire ant pile. Got the little buggers all over me and in my jeans. Ran all the way home and jumped in the shower fully clothed. Still hurts thinking about it some 45 years later...

 

[Dawg52]

As an adult, do you use your shotgun?

Actually it's a sport down south.

 

[Poundkey]

For whatever reason the ants up here in hardscrabble (Ellis County) seem to be on the decline. People in the area always do the usual treatments of various baits and stuff to keep them in check, but every spring it was like starting over again.
Over the last two years I've noticed a big difference though. Five years ago I would treat over 20 mounds on my 1/4 acre joining lot. This spring I've had to hunt to find one. None of the properties or pastures near me look to be as infested as in the past.

 

[REWahoo]

For whatever reason the ants up here in hardscrabble (Ellis County) seem to be on the decline.

Same here. I suspect it is due to the prolonged lack of rainfall.