Fire ants and adult Redfoot tortoise

helosoldier66

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Anyone have experience with fire ants and Redfoot tortoises? They are both South American species and would come into contact in the wild, just wondering how they deal with the ants. I have been using Orthene powder outside the enclosure but built a new enclosure this weekend and forgot to apply any. Of course one feeding and hello fire ants.
 

ZEROPILOT

REDFOOT WRANGLER
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I live in south Florida and I've 100% wiped them out on my property with three steps.
1: Treat the whole yard with granules made for Fire ant control. Front, back, sides right up to the enclosure walls once a month. Then once every three months.
2: Place ant baits/poison inside glass mayonnaise jars, holes poked in the lids, hidden within the enclosure. This makes them reusable, relatively water proof and safe for the animals.
3: Remove ANY AND ALL foods that might attract ants within 30 minutes. Eaten or not.
Good luck.
This worked on Fire ants and even eventually the less harmful "Big headed" ants.
However, not the tiny Sugar eating ants that are in my kitchen. (Still) This will go away as soon as my wife learns how to prepare coffee without spilling anything.
Don't give up. You'll win the battle.
Make sure not to feed anything sappy in the meantime like watermelon or mango.
I've also placed food into open jars near a mound and capped them after they were loaded with ants. Trapping hundreds or thousands at a time and throwing the jar into the trash can.
Get creative then share your stories later.
 
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JanelP

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I use rubbing alcohol to keep the sugar ants off my fruit trees. I just take a cotton swab and rub it around the bottom 2 inches or so and they don't cross it. It seems to leave a film they don't like. I use it in my house too. I spray it along the base boards or where I think they come in. I'm not sure how long it last, I reapply every month or so and it seems to keep them at bay.
 

Yvonne G

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Really?
Do they not like them or does it actually kill them?
I've never heard of that tip. And being a southerner, I always have some grits around!
They take it back to the nest and when they eat it, it swells up and kills them (supposedly)
 

Yvonne G

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Here are a few that I've saved over the years:

Several Home-made Ant Remedies


1 – Boric Acid

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon of Boric Acid, 1 tsp of Sugar, 4 oz water, Cotton Balls.

Mix Boric Acid and Sugar in a bowl. This can be poured over a cotton wad in

a small dish or bottle cap. Keep this from drying out for continued

effectiveness. Place Cotton balls in path of Ants. If the ants are drawn to sugar, if you make a solution of boric acid and sugar, not too much boric acid initially, the ants will eat it up take it to their young and feed it to them. This method will kill the entire nest in about two weeks. The solution should initially be weak because you don't want them to taste the boric acid and you don't want to kill the ants before they feed the rest of the nest. If they are protein eating ants mix the boric acid in broth.



2 – Another Boric Acid


>> 1 teaspoon boric acid (available at any drug store,, $2.99 for 4 oz) 6 tablespoons sugar

>> 2 cups water

>> mix together in a jar till all dissolved,, label and store safely.

>>Soak a few cotton balls with it, then put them in a small, covered plastic >container (margarine or <?>) with a few small openings in it for the ants to >get in, (I also put a brick on top so other curious creatures could not get >in)and then freshen it 1-2 times a week.

>> This is a slow acting 1 percent solution to get them to take some back to

>> the nest and even feed the queen :>

>>after a few weeks changing to a 1/2 percent solution should keep them gone.


3 - bacon grease

....in a margarine tub which is sunk into the ground level. The ants here can smell animal fat from what seems like a mile away...Around the outside of the margarine tub I place a big circle of boric acid...and cover it with a rock. The ants have to walk through the boric acid to get to the bacon grease, then back through it on the way out. If they get back to the nest carrying it on their legs, it kills whatever it comes into contact with. We have 4or 5 species of ants here...two of which are lethal!


4 - Found this in Jerry Bakers stuff

Ant Ambrosia

4-5 tbsp. of cornmeal

3 tbsp. of bacon grease

3 tbsp. of baking powder

3 packages of baker's yeast


Mix the cornmeal and bacon grease into a paste, then add the baking powder and yeast. Dab the gooey mix on the sides of jar lids, and set them near the anthills. The pesky critters will love it to death!!""



5 - If you can't find Everclear, liquefy orange peels and pour it around the ant hills. You may get fruit flies, but you won't have any trouble with ants!


6 - I have a friend that put a circle of diatomaceous earth around her aviaries and

effectively kept the ants out that way. She also uses it to directly attack any hills in the area.


7 - I believe that the "new age chalk" is a combination of diatomaceous earth and boric acid. Boric acid is the major component in "Roach Proof" and is a fairly benign and very effective means of insect control.


8 - Amdro is another effective treatment, but it is an actual poison, but safer than others. Both Amdro and Logic are baits that the ants pick up and take into the mound so that the queen eats it.
 

ZEROPILOT

REDFOOT WRANGLER
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Any powdery remedy such as the boric acid "dust" or DE isn't easy to use in an environment this humid and with rain nearly every day.
I imagine that different locations have different treatment options.
 
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