yep - I had luck with boiling water by first taking a long iron pole (or
whatever kind of pole you have) and plunging it into the center of the mound
as far as it will go. You can feel how there's less resistance as deep as
the ants have dug, and then you hit harder soil. It's important to do this
because the ants carry the queen as deep as they can as soon as the nest is
under attack, and this can be several feet down. Rotate the pole to open up
the hole. Immediately (and I mean IMMEDIATELY) after quickly poking a very
deep hole in the nest, dump as much boiling water as you can into it. If you
fail to get the queen you'll still kill a ton of ants, but there's an
excellent chance you'll get her. Studies have found that some nests of fire
ants actually "learn" to avoid Amdro. Can you tell I hate fire ants? :-)

Betsy

"Bill Tschumy" wrote in message
. sbcglobal.net...
On Sun, 6 Apr 2003 12:21:41 -0500, Wayfarer wrote
(in message m):

I have a huge mound -- almost knee high about 15 to 18 inches next to my
garden -- I have tried Amdro and it did not seem to have any effect --
these
guys are mean -- I've fought with them before - gotta wear boots in the
summer to safty walk in the garden and gloves are a good idea to reach
down
and pick something like squash. "Seven" dust works for awhile but
obviously
isn't getting rid of the colony.

HELP PLEASE!!

--
Marta
(if you email me directly you need to remove the X )



I recently got rid of a pretty large colony. Not as big as yours, but
maybe
10 inches high and 16 inches in diameter.

I waited until a sunny mild day and poured about 6 gallons of boiling
water
into it. After the first gallon or two I dug a pit in the center of the
mound to help concentrate the rest of the water. I must have gotten the
queen because in about 4-5 days, the nest was totally dead.