Predators of the fire ant?

[Ganoderma]

What animals prey on fire ants? Im looking smaller (non mammal types) animals that will feed on fire ants with a passion. in our backyard we see centipedes, lizards, spiders etc be torn to shreds by these little <EDIT>. they are now invading the house and every plant i have :wall:

any ideas? Chemicals are completely out of the question due to my sesitivity, lots of children here, and lots of animals.

i know the answer to this question is the million dollar question but we just want to limit them a bit as they are now completely out of controll!!! we are still bring in lots of geckos to teh house to try, but once they meet the backyard they stand no chance :evil:

 

[Jesse607]

You're out of luck, outside of their native environment there are no efficient predators of S. invicta (red imported fire ant). If you are actually sensitive to most insecticides, ask your local PCO (pest control operator) if they have ant baits which contain an IGR (insect growth regulator), these baits can be put in places children and animals are unlikely to find them, and if they do, they have very little toxicity towards mammals and other vertebrates. If they don't, and you don't want insecticides used, get used to living with and beside them!

 

[Stylopidae]

I know phorid flies lay their eggs on the top of a fire ant's head, but I doubt you could raise sufficient numbers of them to make an impact on the colony.

I would try buying a bag of pipe tobacco (ten to twelve bucks for 12 ounces) and mixing up the soil in the colony. The nicotine should do them in. Ethanol also should be pretty toxic, a big bottle of tequila.

Spend a couple of hours out there with a magnifying glass every day?

This is what I would do...I hate fire ants with a passion and I'd have a little bit of sadistic fun with the nest trying to kill them off.

I'd reccomend Jeezy's options, though.

If you decide to try any of my options, tell us how it goes. The nicotine and the ethanol might actually be very effective, depending on the size of the nest.

 

[aggie08]

I set a fire ant hill on fire once when i was younger... didn't kill all that much but it was kinda cool. not sure how to really get rid of them...

 

[Natco]

We don't have true fire ants up here, but we have something similar, and people torch them all the time. I know it sounds very un-PC, but s little petrol works wonders on the buggers. Good Luck.

 

[Ganoderma]

the thing is they are litteraly everywhere in our backyard. well taiwan doesnt have yards its mroe of a dry sand bed.... Anyway i have my garden out there that i e3at from, so gas and the liek wouldnt be so i good i don't think. Didn't think of nicotine, i still have many seeds of N. rustica from canada, so i will try that. They are also in our potted plants in our house....they even invaded out orchids which are in moss.... I never thought i would hate an animal, but now i do. Mosquitos and fire ants :wall: :evil:

thanks for the suggestions. Any others that may work? sometimes i wonder if they are in fact a-sexual...seems like :? arg.

 

[Ant Worker]

As already stated in the united states there isn't a predator that can successfully take down large numbers of fire ants except the argentine ant which is limited to around california. I wasn't aware S. invicta was in Taiwan, mind taking some pictures as I have a feeling its not S. invicta there are plenty of other ants that are highly invasive. Also, how many colonies are there? If they have only a single colony then you could try going into the bush and getting some native ant colonies and placing them around the nest about 4 feet or so away. If it were me, I would get a shovel, dig them up, and destroy the colony in some form.

Good luck, these ant's are very hard to get rid of and chances are you won't be able to.

 

[dtknow]

What?! How the heck do argentine ants kill fire ants? Sheer numbers?

I've seen wars between fire ants and what I think are some kind of native species of black ant and they tend to be very one sided with the midget workers the fire ants have.

 

[KingBollock]

I can only suggest the traditional kettle of boiling water poured into the nest.
Perhaps it's just a British thing?

 

[Ant Worker]

dtknow, yes in some area's the fire ants are strongly repelled by argentines because of numbes. I believe you were seeing some sort of Camponotus sp fighting the fire ants, but again, in this case 1v1 Camponotus wins, but large colonies of fire ants easily win. There isn't any native US species who can fight them.

 

[Randolph XX()]

Hey Kyle
the only effective way is pouring boiling soap water into the nest
man, they even dig through concrete!

 

[iturnrocks]

Spray adhesive. Just spray on insect and they stop in their tracks. Great for flying insects too like paper wasps as their wings stick together and they fall to the ground. Spraying a nest will trap others when they return. I like it much better than that wasp spray. You always end up shooting everything else if you try to hit them while theyre flying. Also with the wasp spray, you spray a nest and they all fly out. With spray adhesive, theres no flying.

I saw a spider walking across a glued nest a couple weeks later, feeding on the dead wasps.

 

[Ant Worker]

Randolph XX(), the ant nest is probably 3+ feet deep, it would be very hard to get enough soap water into the nest and chances are it wouldn't affect them too bad.

Iturnrocks, ants are a bit smarter than that sorry, once they relize it, they cover it with dirt/bodies so its not sticky anymore.

You could try rice, when it gets wet it expands in their stomachs and explodes them, at least, thats what I heard worked (I disagree but its worth a shot).

 

[Ganoderma]

excellent suggetsions. i can get pics yes, but later (it is night now). how many colonies? i have no idea, but there are hundreds of thousands of ants....and they are on all 4 floors and outside.

are tehse other ants that kill fire ants going to be jsut as big a problem as fire ants? dont want to replace teh problem with a bigger problem.

ya randolph i never would have believed that till i came here. they really do go under concrete. they are underneath our concrete pad as well.

we are trying soapy water with the wones in teh house, and outside. i got doubts taht it will work oustide, but hopefully in teh mor econtrolled indoors. i used it for bugs before in canada and it worked, never ants though.

after this i will try rice, but i have a feeling i will jsut bee feeding the bloudy things.

i am not in usa so it doesn't really matter if there are any there for me, i am wondering if there are any anywahere that i can bring in to get rid of the things. I am on my knees here pleeding with the bug gods for the things to go away. even a school full of children (i live in an ESL school) cant kill them all

thanks again fro all teh suggestions, i'll get some pics. I really am not positive they are fire ants jsut told they were. they are small, orangy/red and their bites actually hurt a bit!

 

[Ant Worker]

I'm betting its another form of Solenopsis, not the fire ant's we think of as S. invicta and others. Sounds more like a native sp which right now the name escapes me. Argentines and Fire ants are both pests argentines have much greater numbers but no sting, Fire ants less numbers but a sometimes painful sting that some are allergic to. I wouldn't tell you to bring argies since your in Taiwan, you would get into A HUGE ammount of trouble from the government for doing this as these ants have already taken over parts of western us, and western europe, as well as parts of australia im told.

If you don't mind them being outside, but want them outside you could try a technique a friend of mine used in her workplace to keep the ants out. Take chicken feeders and fill them with sugar water and place them outside where ever the ants are comming in, ants mostly invade homes/business/buildings for the surplus of dropped food crumbs, cabinets full of food etc. So they'd have no reason to enter the building now. If they have nested inside the walls of your establishment the only option is heavy doses of pesticides.

 

[Jesse607]

Here in the U.S. another non-native species, the pavement ant Tetramorium caespitum where established, have been found to successfully fight and kill off young S. invicta colonies.

It is either S. invicta or S. geminata that has recently been found in parts of China and areas near China, and are becoming quite a pest problem.

If I remember correctly, I thought S. invicta was displacing L. humile in many areas?

 

[iturnrocks]

Iturnrocks, ants are a bit smarter than that sorry, once they relize it, they cover it with dirt/bodies so its not sticky anymore.

I suppose youre referring to where I said spraying the paper wasp nest will trap wasps when they return.

I know that doesnt work on ants, but spraying ants you see will stop them.

If you spray the ant nest, just wait till they cover it with bodies then apply another coat. Continue until you have a nice big pile of stuck ants.

Also, a post I made earlier about glueboards, ants seem to be too smart to walk onto a glueboard.

 

[lwbfl]

I too hate fire ants. Over the years I have developed an allergy to their bites. My Dr. told me that I'm the worst he's ever seen and in the top five in the US! Anyway, I control them in my yard using granulated ant poison (it just runs them out of the yard I think. When they do make it in, I use a barrier of boric acid around the outside edges of my house, and use ant spray inside that is labeled for inside use and don't leave a toxic residue. I know some of these things aren't an option for the original poster, but someone my benefit from this information.

 

[dtknow]

Ant Worker: Don't think these are Camponotus. They are around the size of the fire ants but smaller than the soldiers of the fire ants. Black with very squared off heads. They prefer bone dry areas and at least from what I've observed the colonies are not very dense(maybe 6 guards at an entrance). Actually I think now they may be black pavement ants that were previously mentioned.

Wonder if mixing in a bit of detergent like that used for carwashes and pouring that down the burrow would work?

 

[Ant Worker]

From your description is Pheidole, the most developed ants to fight fire ants.