Killing Fire Ants in a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

Living in the South, fire ants are an everyday sight. They build mounds in most yards and can attack you faster than lightning if you dare to disturb their nest. My yard has been a haven for fire ants for years. Nothing I have tried has really worked to get rid of the ants, they just move their home and start over in another area of the yard. Well, this year they moved into my raised bed garden boxes. When I went to turn over the soil and get ready to plant I had a rude awakening as they boiled out of the earth and attacked me.

Several minutes later as I stopped screaming and swatting and applied anti-itch cream to my poor swollen hands, I determined that this was it. I was tired of fighting these ants. I wanted them gone. And I was not about to fight with them over my garden! It was them or me (Oh, please let it be them!).

I started off my battle with the good old boy (or girl) phone net. I called my mom and asked her what to do. Then I called my friends and they all laughed at me as they told me what they did. I was on my own. The little bit of knowledge that I had gleaned would have to suffice. I ventured forth into the back yard with the first solution in hand.

After trying the three fire ant killing methods that I will outline here for you, I threw in the towel and called in the experts. I went to Ace Hardware and spoke with someone in their garden center. HAHA! I killed my ants in less than two hours! And you can, too.

Here are three all natural ways to kill fire ants and how they worked for me. Then, there is the solution that Ace Hardware supplied for me..... but don't skip to the end! Read all of the solutions. Some of them may work better for you than they did for me.

Fire Ant Killing Solution #1 - Grits

Many Southerners swear by grits. Not just for eating, but for killing ants! Supposedly, if you pour uncooked grits on a mound of ants then the ants will eat the grits, carry them to the queen and when they drink water, they explode. I have used grits before with mixed results. This time, they did nothing. When I did a little research, I discovered that grits really do nothing to ants except make them move their nests if the tunnels are covered with grits. They cannot eat the grits and they do not kill them. However, if you just want to move the ants without killing them, this may be a good solution for you.

Fire Ant Killing Solution #2 - Borax and Powdered Sugar

Borax basically dissolves ants. I know, gross. If you mix borax with powdered sugar, it will draw ants to it and cause them to eat it or at least get it on them. I have heard that this works really great for killing ants in your home. It may even work great on mounds if you surround the mounds with the borax mix. However, with a large area such as my raised bed garden, it really did not do much. I may have killed some of the ants, but it did nothing to get rid of the total infestation.

Fire Ant Killing Solution #3 - Boiling Water

This was the best of the three natural solutions that I tried. The boiling water, poured directly onto an ant mound/ nest will get all the way down into the tunnels and kill not just the worker ants but the queen as well. It takes about 3 liters of boiling water to kill a normal sized ant mound. I had a space about 8 foot by 4 foot to treat. Think about it. The areas that I was able to pour boiling water on did result in many dead ants. However, I was unable to pour enough boiling water on the area to kill the entire colony. And, I think the queen may have been hiding from me and taunting me by this time.

And finally.....

The Ace Hardware Super Duper Fire Ant Killing Solution - Results Fire Ant Killer

After the not-so-great results of the three natural solutions, I was ready to give up and try some chemical based pesticides. I really didn't want to. I mean, this was my vegetable garden! I wanted to keep the chemicals out of it. So, I tried one last time to find something to kill these ants that would not potentially kill me as well. I went to my local Ace Hardware store and spoke with a gentleman in the Garden Center. He nodded when I told him what I wanted and directed me to a display of poisons. I told him I did not want to put chemicals into my garden and he nodded again and told me that this product was safe and that he would use it himself. I read the back of the container and watched a little video about how to use the product and was sold.

The name of the product is Results Fire Ant Killer. It is easy to use, works fast and is not too expensive. A $20 container is enough to kill about 40 mounds of ants. The best thing about it, for me, is that it is made from natural products and leaves no residual contamination. Results can be used in vegetable gardens and on food crops up to harvest time with no problems. You can check out their website at http://www.deadbugsnaturally.com/ for more information. Or, just go ask at your local Ace Hardware store!

My vegetable garden is safe. All of the fire ants are gone from my yard and my garden. I was able to conquer the scourge of the southern yard and with very little effort! Thanks to Ace Hardware and Results Fire Ant Killer, my garden is ready to be planted and I am bite free.

Sources:

How to get rid of Fire Ants

http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-fire-ants.htm

Kill Fire Ants

http://www.fireant.net/Control/index.php

http://www.deadbugsnaturally.com/