AAAAAAAAAAAACK!

[cvalda]

I had the tortoises out, including "The Howies" (the Leopard yearling & hatchlings) and Dasani (the little Hermann's).

All of a sudden Dasani went running, and so Deontay picked her up to check on her, and these fire ants just came out of nowhere and attacked her. He ran her in the house and gave her to me because he couldn't get them off - they were attached to her legs, biting hard, and it was SOOOO hard to get them off her.

I have her soaking right now.

Will they have done any lasting damage, do you think? She's so small, three ants easily covered an entire leg (and they were on ALL of her legs)!

MY POOR BABY!!!!!!

They didn't seem to get at The Howies but we have them soaking too, just in case!

 

[egyptiandan]

Kelly deep breath There aren't any fire ants where you are, it's just to cold. Most ants bite, where as fire ants sting. Ant bites are usually pretty mild, so all you have to do is keep the areas clean and use a topical antibiotic.

Danny

 

[cvalda]

80's is too cold???

these were reddish, not small... and they bit in and held on for dear life, even after i ripped their evil bodies off! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'course now the Torts can't go back outside until I eliminate the ants... and then how long after that will I have to wait for the grass to not be "poison" with ant killer before I put them back out?!?

 

[JustAnja]

No, what Dan means is its too cold in the winter for Fire Ants to survive up here. We do have a few ant species here and some are good sized.

This map shows Fire Ant ranges so far, they are getting farther north but will never live up here due to the harsh winters.

http://fireant.ifas.ufl.edu/2001.htm

You can find which ants range here in WI at this link.

http://insects.entomology.wisc.edu/hymenoptera/vespoidea/formicidae/


Sorry to hear about little Desani, Im sure she will be just fine.

 

[cvalda]

well that's good! one of them bit my son (whatever they are) and he said it surely hurt, I can only imagine what Dasani must've felt like!

 

[egyptiandan]

They sound like wood ants Kelly. They do bite and defend their nest aggressively.

Danny

 

[Itort]

Bait the area of the with a product called Terro in bottle cap (to restrict the poison). The ants collect the chemical and carry it into the nest, feed it to the colony including queen killing entire colony. The poison is dispersed through the colony underground and well out of reach of torts.

 

[Crazy1]

Kelly here is a site that identifys some ants by pictures.
http://www.epestsupply.com/ants.htm
and here are some sites that tell you how to organically get rid of ants.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2038556_kil...ce=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

http://www.ehow.com/how_2129438_easily-kill-ants-poison-organically.html?
ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

http://www.wikihow.com/Kill-Ants-Without-Pesticides

Kink-da found this one a little funny had to put it in.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060801031617AAw5hXx

Hope this helps.

 

[cvalda]

Thanks for the links, Robyn!

I got some of the terro traps (needed some for in the house, anyway! LOL) so we'll see... i didn't even see any ants out there today, figures!

Dasani is fine now, luckily... cruising around, looking for food!