I don’t know about where you live, but here in north Texas we have to deal with fire ants. They’re small but vicious and, apparently, have a passion for flesh. Plus, as you probably already know, their bites (and there can be lots of them very quickly) leave painful, itchy whelps.
Wanna get rid of them from your yard?
Seems that’s the problem. Everybody and their uncle has an idea about how to rid the yard or pasture of the little buggers but most of them are only temporary solutions. And, most of them also involve nasty, semi-toxic chemicals.
What’s an antphobe to do?
Well, there really are a couple of honest-to-goodness, permanent solutions.
Solution 1 is simple.
1. Clear out an unobstructed path between your kitchen and the ant hill. That is, move the kids and pets somewhere else and make sure there’s nothing on the floor that you will trip on.
2. Bring a medium-sized metal container of water to a rolling boil. (Yes, I know, a plastic container will have less-satisfying results.)
3. Pour the boiling water down the middle of the ant hill.
4. As always, do whatever you can to ensure the safety of you and anyone around you while transporting and handling boiling water!
Solution 2 is simple but requires slightly more preparation.
1. Buy some orange oil from your local organic garden center. I use Erath Earth orange oil from Hico, TX. Bought it at Lowes.
2. Outside, in a regular-sized mop bucket, pour in 1 to 2 ounces of the orange oil.
3. Add a healthy squirt of regular dishwashing detergent.
4. Fill the bucket with water and mix thoroughly.
5. Pour about half of the mixture down the middle of the ant hill. Save the remaining half for the next herd of ants that take up residency in your yard.
Works every time. And, so it goes.
Or, there’s always this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090512/sc_mcclatchy/3231765;_ylt=AmUMoWu9jhbrDHKN1D7Im9IDW7oF