For those of us living in the south, we struggle with a problem our friends in the north do not...Fire Ants. These ants have a nasty habit of swarming when their mound is disturbed and biting, biting, biting which leaves welts on your skin that itch like the dickens. If you scratch them the resulting scab remains for weeks and weeks at a time. Rubbing alcohol applied immediately after being bitten seems to reduce or even prevent the welt from forming. They are a gift from south of the boarder and have been making their way into the US. Areas that don't experience a hard frost are plagued with them. Most folks use "Fire Ant" killer, a harsh chemical that does destroy the mount but it's not something you want to put in your vegetable beds and by transfere eat it yourself.I wanted to share this information from the Organic Gardening magazine people cause I used one of the suggestions. Earlier in the year as I was moving from my winter garden to my summer garden I had several fire ant mounds in at least two of my 4' x 4' boxes. With the help of a visiting family member, we poured at least 3 - 4 gallons of scalding hot water on each of the mounds and it worked. The ant colony was destroyed and I have been ant "free" in those boxes ever since.
THANK YOU for sharing this! Fire ants are a big problem in Arizona and I thought I had left them behind when I came to Colorado! No such luck and here I am, at a loss as to what to do to rid myself of these insects from hades! I plan on using this idea when next I encounter these menaces! So again...THANK YOU!!!
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