Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home. This fire ant village comes to the surface at
various places around our raised gardens and the boiling water is one
way to get rid of them. Most likely the ants are five to fifteen feet
deep and have multiple queens who lay eggs continuously.

Fire ants can really hurt you and your pets just by getting on you in
swarms and bite you and inject something that will make you hurt for a
while and leaves pustules.

They will even make their own rafts if their area floods, the ant ball
moves constantly to avoid drowning, they protect the queens and eggs as
much as possible. Came here to Texas from ships coming into port from
South America about the time I was growing up, probably mid-fifties, I
have scars from getting into the !@#$%^ ants path as a teen out hunting
and fishing or just running the woods for the hell of it. (lived close
to large ports on the Gulf Coast) Nowadays they are every where in Texas.

My lovely wife is putting gallons of boiling water down their exit hole
and chortling while she does it. I just hope it works.

George, scratching his legs again

On 9/4/2017 5:14 PM, George Shirley wrote:
Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home. This fire ant village comes to the surface at
various places around our raised gardens and the boiling water is one
way to get rid of them. Most likely the ants are five to fifteen feet
deep and have multiple queens who lay eggs continuously.

Fire ants can really hurt you and your pets just by getting on you in
swarms and bite you and inject something that will make you hurt for a
while and leaves pustules.

They will even make their own rafts if their area floods, the ant ball
moves constantly to avoid drowning, they protect the queens and eggs as
much as possible. Came here to Texas from ships coming into port from
South America about the time I was growing up, probably mid-fifties, I
have scars from getting into the !@#$%^ ants path as a teen out hunting
and fishing or just running the woods for the hell of it. (lived close
to large ports on the Gulf Coast) Nowadays they are every where in Texas.

My lovely wife is putting gallons of boiling water down their exit hole
and chortling while she does it. I just hope it works.

George, scratching his legs again

One of the benefits of living further north where these ants cannot
survive winters.

I'd be dumping the recommended pesticides down the holes as these should
leave residues to continue further killing. Boiling water would cool
rapidly as it penetrates the ground and only kill the surface ones, I
would guess.

I get problems with yellow jackets nesting in the lawn and got a half
dozen stings on my ankle out back spraying weeds a few weeks ago. I
blasted the nest with the wasp spray soaking the ground and seem to have
wiped out the nest.

On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home.
I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs. Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere. In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year. Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants won't
eat the bait but those that do die. Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site. They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it. I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several times
each year. I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded. It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.

On 9/5/2017 11:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home.
Â*Â*Â*Â*I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs.Â* Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere.Â* In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year.Â* Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants won't
eat the bait but those that do die.Â* Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site.Â* They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it.Â* I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several times
each year.Â* I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded.Â* It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.

Our poor dog has been covered up with fleas this summer. We've treated
the yard where she roams, treated her with Advantax several times, and
evidently it has quit working altogether. Next, we tried flea baths
with a flea collar, and no luck, either. She ended up scratching and
biting herself so much she has very little fur on her tail, butt, and
parts of her legs. We finally called the vet. He had a stronger flea
killer that is a pill. One was to kill all the fleas on her in 24 hours,
and the other is one pill a month. We have 3 months worth of it.

Our son suggested we bath her in dawn dish soap because it is gentle and
also kills fleas, so he did that this past Saturday. He also suggested
we put out bowls of dawn water around the house as a trap for any indoor
fleas. Speaking of which, we also treated the indoors for fleas too.

A week later from her original vet treatment, I don't see any fleas on
her body now, just the occasionally one that gets on her paws when being
outside. Evidently, the indoor treatment is working, too, because we've
caught some fleas in the bowls, but really not too many. Initially, we
caught like 4 or 5 fleas in different parts of the house, and now we're
only catching 1 or 2 new fleas a day.

The vet said that everyone is having horrible problems with fleas around
here. We didn't have much of a cold winter last year, so I guess that's
why. Is anyone else having flea problems?

--
Maggie

Derald wrote:
....
Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it. I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several times
each year. I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded. It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

of the phorid flies, certain species are predators of
fire ants.


songbird

On 09/04/2017 02:14 PM, George Shirley wrote:
Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home. This fire ant village comes to the surface at
various places around our raised gardens and the boiling water is one
way to get rid of them. Most likely the ants are five to fifteen feet
deep and have multiple queens who lay eggs continuously.

Fire ants can really hurt you and your pets just by getting on you in
swarms and bite you and inject something that will make you hurt for a
while and leaves pustules.

They will even make their own rafts if their area floods, the ant ball
moves constantly to avoid drowning, they protect the queens and eggs as
much as possible. Came here to Texas from ships coming into port from
South America about the time I was growing up, probably mid-fifties, I
have scars from getting into the !@#$%^ ants path as a teen out hunting
and fishing or just running the woods for the hell of it. (lived close
to large ports on the Gulf Coast) Nowadays they are every where in Texas.

My lovely wife is putting gallons of boiling water down their exit hole
and chortling while she does it. I just hope it works.

George, scratching his legs again


I heard somewhere that ants don't like vinegar. You
ever try that?

On 9/5/2017 5:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
On 9/5/2017 11:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home.
Â*Â*Â*Â*I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs.Â* Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere.Â* In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year.Â* Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants won't
eat the bait but those that do die.Â* Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site.Â* They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it.Â* I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several times
each year.Â* I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded.Â* It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.

Our poor dog has been covered up with fleas this summer. We've treated
the yard where she roams, treated her with Advantax several times, and
evidently it has quit working altogether. Next, we tried flea baths
with a flea collar, and no luck, either. She ended up scratching and
biting herself so much she has very little fur on her tail, butt, and
parts of her legs. We finally called the vet. He had a stronger flea
killer that is a pill. One was to kill all the fleas on her in 24 hours,
and the other is one pill a month. We have 3 months worth of it.

Our son suggested we bath her in dawn dish soap because it is gentle and
also kills fleas, so he did that this past Saturday. He also suggested
we put out bowls of dawn water around the house as a trap for any indoor
fleas. Speaking of which, we also treated the indoors for fleas too.

A week later from her original vet treatment, I don't see any fleas on
her body now, just the occasionally one that gets on her paws when being
outside. Evidently, the indoor treatment is working, too, because we've
caught some fleas in the bowls, but really not too many. Initially, we
caught like 4 or 5 fleas in different parts of the house, and now we're
only catching 1 or 2 new fleas a day.

The vet said that everyone is having horrible problems with fleas around
here. We didn't have much of a cold winter last year, so I guess that's
why. Is anyone else having flea problems?

Our dog has never had a flea on her that I've seen. Have not found any
fleas on our property. No dogs on this block but ours. She has brought
in a tick or two after walking around the retention pond area with my
wife. Easy to find as she scratches at them and I drown them when I find
them. There's only a dozen or less dogs in this 200+ homes here as most
of the folks around us go off to work every day. Only half a dozen
retirees here that I know of. Lots of cats around, mostly seem to be
strays, leftovers dropped off from other folks that don't live here.
Have to call the pound every few months to come and round up the strays.
Dogs and cats that live here are house pets mostly. One family has a
parrot that stays in a tall cage and curses.

On 9/5/2017 6:44 PM, T wrote:
On 09/04/2017 02:14 PM, George Shirley wrote:
Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our
biggest pest in the gardens home. This fire ant village comes to the
surface at various places around our raised gardens and the boiling
water is one way to get rid of them. Most likely the ants are five to
fifteen feet deep and have multiple queens who lay eggs continuously.

Fire ants can really hurt you and your pets just by getting on you in
swarms and bite you and inject something that will make you hurt for a
while and leaves pustules.

They will even make their own rafts if their area floods, the ant ball
moves constantly to avoid drowning, they protect the queens and eggs
as much as possible. Came here to Texas from ships coming into port
from South America about the time I was growing up, probably
mid-fifties, I have scars from getting into the !@#$%^ ants path as a
teen out hunting and fishing or just running the woods for the hell of
it. (lived close to large ports on the Gulf Coast) Nowadays they are
every where in Texas.

My lovely wife is putting gallons of boiling water down their exit
hole and chortling while she does it. I just hope it works.

George, scratching his legs again


I heard somewhere that ants don't like vinegar.Â* You
ever try that?

Dunno, but I once learned that the German name for formic acid,
Ameisensäure, is ant acid as that is where it was first discovered.
Formic is stronger than acetic.

On 09/05/2017 03:44 PM, George Shirley wrote:
One family has a parrot that stays in a tall cage and curses.

Had a customer with a room mate and a parrot. He taught
the parrot to nag his room mate with the same words his
ex wife used. It was funny as all hell listening
to the room mate open the door to enter the house and
have the parrot yell "Where were you!" (among other things)
at him. The room mate almost murdered him.

:-)

On 9/5/2017 5:44 PM, T wrote:
On 09/04/2017 02:14 PM, George Shirley wrote:
Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our
biggest pest in the gardens home. This fire ant village comes to the
surface at various places around our raised gardens and the boiling
water is one way to get rid of them. Most likely the ants are five to
fifteen feet deep and have multiple queens who lay eggs continuously.

Fire ants can really hurt you and your pets just by getting on you in
swarms and bite you and inject something that will make you hurt for a
while and leaves pustules.

They will even make their own rafts if their area floods, the ant ball
moves constantly to avoid drowning, they protect the queens and eggs
as much as possible. Came here to Texas from ships coming into port
from South America about the time I was growing up, probably
mid-fifties, I have scars from getting into the !@#$%^ ants path as a
teen out hunting and fishing or just running the woods for the hell of
it. (lived close to large ports on the Gulf Coast) Nowadays they are
every where in Texas.

My lovely wife is putting gallons of boiling water down their exit
hole and chortling while she does it. I just hope it works.

George, scratching his legs again


I heard somewhere that ants don't like vinegar.Â* You
ever try that?
Yeah, they looked like they liked the taste of it. A few drowned the
rest just went on with their business. The one bed of ants we have has
either given up and moved after the boiling water hit them or they've
gone deep down to get ready to get us. We shall see how it all works.

We only have this one nest, asked around and no one else seems to be
bothered. Our subdivision sits on five feet of gumbo clay, put in to get
the houses above the flood zone that requires more insurance. I know we
didn't bring them with us and, they only pop up once or twice a year.
They may be harvesting the pipeline right of way behind our fence and
then found their lunch room called our vegetable garden. We shall see in
the coming weeks.

On 9/5/2017 5:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
On 9/5/2017 11:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home.
Â*Â*Â*Â*I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs.Â* Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere.Â* In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year.Â* Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants won't
eat the bait but those that do die.Â* Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site.Â* They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it.Â* I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several times
each year.Â* I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded.Â* It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.
Our poor dog has been covered up with fleas this summer. We've treated
the yard where she roams, treated her with Advantax several times, and
evidently it has quit working altogether. Next, we tried flea baths
with a flea collar, and no luck, either. She ended up scratching and
biting herself so much she has very little fur on her tail, butt, and
parts of her legs. We finally called the vet. He had a stronger flea
killer that is a pill. One was to kill all the fleas on her in 24 hours,
and the other is one pill a month. We have 3 months worth of it.

Our son suggested we bath her in dawn dish soap because it is gentle and
also kills fleas, so he did that this past Saturday. He also suggested
we put out bowls of dawn water around the house as a trap for any indoor
fleas. Speaking of which, we also treated the indoors for fleas too.

A week later from her original vet treatment, I don't see any fleas on
her body now, just the occasionally one that gets on her paws when being
outside. Evidently, the indoor treatment is working, too, because we've
caught some fleas in the bowls, but really not too many. Initially, we
caught like 4 or 5 fleas in different parts of the house, and now we're
only catching 1 or 2 new fleas a day.

The vet said that everyone is having horrible problems with fleas around
here. We didn't have much of a cold winter last year, so I guess that's
why. Is anyone else having flea problems?

Â* It's been a bad summer for fleas and ticks both out here in The
Holler . I use frontline plus on Max , he still has a few fleas but not
nearly as bad as it could be . I spray his blanket (actually a handmade
afghan but I won't tell if you don't ...) regularly to keep it from
getting infested . Our house doesn't have carpet for them to hide in , a
bonus .

Â* --

Â* Snag

On Wed, 06 Sep 2017 00:44:27 -0400, Derald .
wrote:

Seems to me that in their native states a long term equilibrium exists
between predator and prey. As a general rule, predator species don't
eat themselves into extinction. One more alien species will not
eliminate the ants, guaranteed, and, if it _does_, who's to say what it
will eat next?

Look up a Pete Seeger song: "The People are Scratching," for a
humerous look at what happens when you try to change one thing.


---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
http://www.avg.com

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

of the phorid flies, certain species are predators of
fire ants.
Unfortunately they are not native, not present in sufficient number
to be meaningful, in short supply, not found on the handy homeowner
retail market. At least, I haven't found a source. You may find the
following citations interesting.

http://okaloosa.ifas.ufl.edu/2011Hor...esFireAnts.pdf

https://patch.com/texas/downtownaust...e-ants-zombies

http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/view/56812

a bit busy this morning to read all of those, but
looks like they support my previous reading on the
topic.


Seems to me that in their native states a long term equilibrium exists
between predator and prey. As a general rule, predator species don't
eat themselves into extinction.

some barren islands would refute that blanket
statement...


One more alien species will not
eliminate the ants, guaranteed, and, if it _does_, who's to say what it
will eat next?

they've already been introduced to the USoA. like
the ants they will spread through time.

it may not stop them entirely, but the evidence i've
read says it gives them more of a challenge so that
other native species have more of a chance.

if they were not specific feeders they'd already have
been here (IMO) given that they've had 10,000 years to
travel the distance and plenty of alternative hosts to
use as skipping along points or stepping stones.

whenever there has been an introduced/non-native
species that becomes a problem it is usually because
the species has been introduced without the rest of
their system (prey species which would normally keep
them in check somewhat).


songbird

On 9/5/2017 7:33 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
On 9/5/2017 5:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
On 9/5/2017 11:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our
biggest
pest in the gardens home.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs.Â* Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline
and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere.Â* In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year.Â* Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on
them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants
won't
eat the bait but those that do die.Â* Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site.Â* They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it.Â* I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several
times
each year.Â* I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded.Â* It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.
Our poor dog has been covered up with fleas this summer.Â* We've treated
the yard where she roams, treated her with Advantax several times, and
evidently it has quit working altogether.Â* Next, we tried flea baths
with a flea collar, and no luck, either.Â* She ended up scratching and
biting herself so much she has very little fur on her tail, butt, and
parts of her legs.Â* We finally called the vet. He had a stronger flea
killer that is a pill. One was to kill all the fleas on her in 24 hours,
and the other is one pill a month. We have 3 months worth of it.

Our son suggested we bath her in dawn dish soap because it is gentle and
also kills fleas, so he did that this past Saturday.Â* He also suggested
we put out bowls of dawn water around the house as a trap for any indoor
fleas.Â* Speaking of which, we also treated the indoors for fleas too.

A week later from her original vet treatment, I don't see any fleas on
her body now, just the occasionally one that gets on her paws when being
outside.Â* Evidently, the indoor treatment is working, too, because we've
caught some fleas in the bowls, but really not too many. Initially, we
caught like 4 or 5 fleas in different parts of the house, and now we're
only catching 1 or 2 new fleas a day.

The vet said that everyone is having horrible problems with fleas around
here.Â* We didn't have much of a cold winter last year, so I guess that's
why.Â* Is anyone else having flea problems?

Â* It's been a bad summer for fleas and ticks both out here in The
Holler . I use frontline plus on Max , he still has a few fleas but not
nearly as bad as it could be . I spray his blanket (actually a handmade
afghan but I won't tell if you don't ...) regularly to keep it from
getting infested . Our house doesn't have carpet for them to hide in , a
bonus .

Â* --

Â* Snag

Our ten year old Rat Terrier has never had fleas or ticks, she has been
on a regime of flea and tick medication the first of each month all her
life. She cleans her front feet often and also her back end when she's
been out. I guess it's because she has short legs, was supposed to be a
miniature ratty, but has the body of a regular rat terrier on short
legs. Vets look at her and shake their heads.

We don't have carpets other than our "Persian" carpets we bought during
our five years in the Middle East. The dog knows which she can lay on,
the cheap ones. G

The dog and I sleep under an Afghan blanket, made by my elder sister who
crocheted all the time and is now long gone. It's light, keeps us warm
when the AC is on, and we put a real blanket under it in the winter. Dog
let me sleep until nearly 7 am this morning, that's a first. Wife is
still snoring and the dog is napping on the couch behind my office
chair. The dog used to snore but the vet fixed that. I'm thinking of
taking my wife to that vet too.

George

On Wed, 06 Sep 2017 12:14:06 -0400, Derald .
wrote:

Thanks! A post-muse Seeger flashback! ...it could happen....

I saw him play several times, living semi-locally to his home in
Beacon, NY....the other tune that pops up whenever I hear more of the
present craziness is "God Bless the Grass."
I hope Pete was right; right now truth seems to be unimportant...

(We now return you to your gardens, hopefully still in progress. I'm
making SWMBO Basmati Pilaf with Tatsoi greens, and whatever else I
feel like tossing in).


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