Fire Ant Control Protocol
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Basics
- Check Fire Ant Distribution chart to see if this is relevant
- User: Eric here, in Florida we have a PILE of them so I’m making this page just to document what all i know/have dug up
Protocol
- Survey the site and place Marking Flags on all the ant hills
- At the same time some sort of pesticide can be applied, or an alternative treatment used
- Then wait a few days (need to double check the different pesticide options and time until they should have worked+plug info in here)
- Continue to check and reapply as needed
- Upon the anthill being confirmed “dead”, Disturb/Fill in the hill and remove the flag
Further Research Needed
- Pesricide Options (Mainly to seek low-bio persistent options and/or options that would be easily made in a biorefinery (preferably without Fluorine Compounds etc)
- Gathering Information on Alternate Treatments
- Seemingly Promising Options are:
- Drenching in a Detergent-Water Mixture
- Gets past their wax coating, and disturbs surface tension thus preventing them from floating away
- Dry Ice or Liquid Nitrogen
- Confirmed to work well with Yellow Jackets , Main issue is acquiring the materials, BUT either via the development of Home/Makerspace Scale Cryocoolers or something akin to Dry Ice from CO2 Fire Extinguishers it is doable.
- Drenching in a Detergent-Water Mixture
- How far Fire Ant Populations move over a given period of time, aids in Routine Maintenance Scheduling or potentially even Eradication Efforts in areas where they are an Invasive Species