Hi all,

I'm mostly a lurker here but I thought I'd post a funny (and dangerous)
story as an example of how NOT to kill fire ants.

I grew up in NC and had my fair share of ant bites by fire ants.. ugh. The
story goes:

My dad (from the Philippines) tried to get rid of them by pouring gasoline
on them (at the suggestion of one of the neighbors I believe). I dont' know
who told him to do this, or if tehy thought it woudl be funny - but as you
know - one ant mound is usually linked to another mound, etc.

So he pours gas on each mound, the ants are going nuts, crawling everywhere.
He's probably breaking all sorts of environmental laws, just killing the
earth, god, the amount of damage tht did. Especially when some other idiot
got the bright idea to throw a match down.

Apparetnly several mounds "blew up", showering everyone around with really
****ed off fire ants. Not only that, but gass got everywhere

I tell you, people are positively brilliant sometimes *sarcasm*. My uncle
was going nuts when he heard about this - yelling and hollering. Anyway, I
don't know how many mounds are generally connected in some form, but at
least 3 "blew up" that day.

in article , Culturalenigma at
wrote on 9/10/03 7:20 PM:

I'm mostly a lurker here but I thought I'd post a funny (and dangerous)
story as an example of how NOT to kill fire ants.

snip

Firstly, gasoline without additives is about as organic as you can get. Ask
any chemists.

Secondly, even if you went *inorganic* how can you get rid of fire ants?

When I was a kid, I remember seeing a product that was in the form of a
powder. I think it was calcium cyanide, but it really was a long time ago.
It came in a can with a nozzle to insert the powder down the nest enterance.
Then, either from ground moisture, or added water, the powder would produce
hydrogen cyanide.

Aside from possible environmental problems, would such treatment be
effective against ants?

Bill

In article ,
says...
When I was a kid, I remember seeing a product that was in the form of a
powder. I think it was calcium cyanide, but it really was a long time ago.
It came in a can with a nozzle to insert the powder down the nest enterance.
Then, either from ground moisture, or added water, the powder would produce
hydrogen cyanide.


There used to be a product called cyanamid (sp?) that was used to kill a
lawn for replanting. It was a powder you applied and then watered in.
IIRC, it generated some form of cyanide that killed all vegetation
including dormant seeds. In about 3 days it decomposed to a fertilizer
and you then reseeded.

I only used it once, but it worked like a charm. I replaced a
grass lawn with dichondra and never saw a blade of grass trying to come
back. The stuff is undoubtedly banned now.

--
Where ARE those Iraqi WMDs?

writes:
Hi all,

I'm mostly a lurker here but I thought I'd post a funny (and dangerous)
story as an example of how NOT to kill fire ants.

Do you think the story has been embellished through the years as things
like this often are?

in article , Larry Blanchard at
wrote on 9/11/03 8:40 AM:

In article ,
says...
When I was a kid, I remember seeing a product that was in the form of a
powder. I think it was calcium cyanide, but it really was a long time ago.
It came in a can with a nozzle to insert the powder down the nest enterance.
Then, either from ground moisture, or added water, the powder would produce
hydrogen cyanide.


There used to be a product called cyanamid (sp?) that was used to kill a
lawn for replanting. It was a powder you applied and then watered in.
IIRC, it generated some form of cyanide that killed all vegetation
including dormant seeds. In about 3 days it decomposed to a fertilizer
and you then reseeded.

I only used it once, but it worked like a charm. I replaced a
grass lawn with dichondra and never saw a blade of grass trying to come
back. The stuff is undoubtedly banned now.

I tried tracking this down a bit, but Google didn't search the way I wanted
it to.

The cyanamide process, used by the American Cyanamid Corporation, was an
early method to fix nitrogen for fertilizer and explosives. It preceded the
Haber process that ultimately replaced the cyanamid porocess. Cyanamide can
be used directly as fertilizer. It can be used to produce cyanide products
when mixed with boiling water or in other high temperature processes. So I
do not think that calcium cyanamide itself was very useful to kill ants.

One fumigant that I used was metam sodium, also known as vapam or sodium
methyldithiocarb. I may still have some in my garage although it was banned,
at least in California when a trainload was dumped into a river. It was
pretty good for sterilizing soil.

Although it would be considered a metal-organic compound, I do not think
that it would meet with approval from organic farming enthusiasts.

Bill

Do you think the story has been embellished through the years as things
like this often are?

Um, possibly. I'm sure there were more than just my father who tried it.
There had to be more. I knew of two men in high school who one ended up in
the hospital after setting himself on fire accidentally.

in article , Repeating Decimal at
wrote on 9/11/03 1:06 PM:

One fumigant that I used was metam sodium, also known as vapam or sodium
methyldithiocarb. I may still have some in my garage although it was banned,
at least in California when a trainload was dumped into a river. It was
pretty good for sterilizing soil.

By coincidence, there was a PBS broadcast on KOCE (Orange County, CA)
tonight about a metam sodium spill on the then Soutern Pacific RR into the
Upper Sacromento River. It killed off everything in the river including
fish, snails, and plants. It took about a decade for the river to recover as
it was restocked from unaffected tributaries.

Bill