2kids10horses
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Post by 2kids10horses on Sept 9, 2012 10:37:56 GMT -5
Here in Georgia, fire ants are everywhere. Everybody hates them.
All the fire ant poisons are just temporary, they come back. The baits seem to work the best, but they're expensive, and my wife is chemically sensitive, so I can't use them.
So, there's been an "old wives' tale" going around that sprinkling grits on the mound will kill them because when the ants eat the grits, the grits will expand, and "explode" the ants.
Yeah, seems far fetched to me, too. But grits do expand...
So, I tried it. On a couple of smaller mounds near the driveway. I used some finely ground grits we got from a mill, but unfortunately they're too fine. We like the coarser ones. So, I sprinkled some on the mound. Check that, I sprinkled a LOT on. I spilled the bag! The ants came out and merrily started carrying the grits down into the mound. I did not see any explosions...
Next day, I went out, and there were still ants carrying grits down, but I didn't see as many. Hmm...
Second day, I still saw grits, but very few ants. The hills seemed to be a little lower. Maybe there's something to this...
Today, only one or two ants! The hills are flat! I kicked at the hills, and there's no ants! I don't see any exploded ant parts, but I don't care about that!
Also yesterday, when it started looking like this really might work, I started two more hills.
Now, I'm going to go around and treat all the hills.
So, some theory...
1) It really works, it explodes inside them
2) Maybe there's something in grits that poisons them, but it doesn't explode them
3) Maybe they didn't like the grits either, so they've gone to the neighbors house looking for better tasting grits!
Anybody else tried this?
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Green Eyed Lady
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Post by Green Eyed Lady on Sept 9, 2012 10:40:01 GMT -5
Never heard of this, but glad to know you are experiencing success. Maybe they are Yankee ants and are headed for northern fare!
Whatever works, works!
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Sept 9, 2012 11:01:45 GMT -5
Answer: This home remedy probably originated from ant bait products, which often use corn grits as the carrier for the chemical bait. No, grits alone will not kill fire ants. Adult ants can't eat solid food, including grits. Ants bring food back to the colony, where they feed it to their larvae. Fire ant larvae can chew and process the solids. The larvae then regurgitate the partially digested food for their adult caretakers. The adult ants then consume the liquefied nutrients. So there's no chance that the stomach will explode. But don't take my word for it. Researchers proved that grits are ineffective for controlling or eliminating fire ant colonies in several studies, including the following: •Laboratory Assay of Effect of Instant Grits and Malt-O-Meal for Imported Fire Ant Control • Evaluation Of “Organic” Products And Home Remedies To Eliminate Red Imported Fire Ant Colonies Some people insist they've tried the grits remedy and the ants disappeared. It must have worked, right? Wrong. Fire ants (like many other ants) don't like being disturbed. When you introduce a strange, new thing to their immediate environment, they often respond by moving elsewhere. It's quite possible that the colony relocated upon discovering a pile of grits on top of their home. There's no scientific evidence that grits do anything to kill the fire ants. insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/f/Do-Grits-Kill-Fire-Ants.htm
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2kids10horses
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Post by 2kids10horses on Sept 9, 2012 11:06:46 GMT -5
weltschertz,
I,too, looked up on the internet to see if the grits thing would work before I tried it, and indeed did see that the scientists said it didn't.
I don't believe everything I read on the internet!
So, I tried it, just for fun.
If it were simply a "disturbance" thing, they would have moved long ago. That mound gets mowed every week! Sometimes more often!
They have also been "disturbed" in the past with product made by Ortho, Amdro and Bayer. They're still there. Or were. Now that I've given them some grits.
I'll keep the thread updated...
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Sept 9, 2012 11:19:01 GMT -5
Kind of like feeding seagulls alka seltzer tablets. It doesn't work there, either.
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Sept 9, 2012 11:25:09 GMT -5
Why would anyone feed seagulls Alka Seltzer tablets??
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Sept 9, 2012 11:26:42 GMT -5
Grits = cat litter.
Nough said.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Sept 9, 2012 11:27:08 GMT -5
Sigh, to get them to blow up. You have to realize this is a freaky magnet high school filled with nerds.
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Sept 9, 2012 11:27:13 GMT -5
If it were simply a "disturbance" thing, they would have moved long ago. That mound gets mowed every week! Sometimes more often! -------------- Perhaps they're used to that particular disturbance. I don't know. However, it stands to reason that since ants are unable to eat solid food, the grits would be useless.
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alabamagal
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Post by alabamagal on Sept 9, 2012 11:37:25 GMT -5
I have never tried the grits. We use Amdro, and swear it is the best thing around. It may seem expensive, usually around $10 a small cannister, but if you read the directions, it only requires a small amount to kill the mound, and they are really gone, not just moved a few feet away.
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2kids10horses
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Post by 2kids10horses on Sept 9, 2012 11:38:00 GMT -5
Maybe the larvae explode?
Now, people used to say not to feed dry beet pulp to horses because it expands when wet, too. But, I fed my horses beet pulp, and they never exploded. But, then again, horses don't have hard exoskeletons...
So, like I said, I just went out and sprinkled the rest of my grits on mounds.
<It's beginning to sound like the 4th of July around here...>
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2012 11:40:14 GMT -5
Any chance you just suffocated them?
I live in the South, and I've never heard this particular wive's tale. To be honest, almost nothing "kills" fire ants. The best you can do is to make them relocate. That's why they usually suggest treating your whole yard.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Sept 9, 2012 11:56:11 GMT -5
I've heard about the grits thing (even though I don't live in the South) and it just sounds silly. If grits worked so great - why are there still Fire Ants at all? Humans are GREAT at pushing creatures to extinction (buffalo, species of pidgeons, some bugs, snakes, other critters) - you'd think with something so readily available that Fire Ants would have been removed from the face of the earth.
Seriously, What's the life cycle of Fire Ants? Have you bulked them up with food for their 'dormant, hang out until it's time to go looking for food again' time? Where they in a state of 'swarming' when you noticed them? Maybe the Ants are still there - with full bellies while frollicking and canoodling. Maybe you'll have a bazillion more ants in a few weeks when you see the results of the bounty of food and canoodling...
In my area, Every spring the 'sidewalk ants' - ie pavement ants , swarm. You barely see an ant the entire year and then wham bam for 2 or 3 weeks each spring it seems like the world is being overrun with ants. They are just 'swarming': sending the kids out to start new colonies and/or the few Lady Ants are out strutting their stuff for the billions of Gentleman Ants (so a new colony or two can get started). You can do all sorts of stuff to make the ants go away... poison 'em, bait 'em, use home remedies, do nothing... in a couple of weeks all the ants will 'magically' dissappear proving that ALL of the remedies worked (even doing nothing).
Are Fire Ants like that?
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Sept 9, 2012 12:00:16 GMT -5
Why would anyone feed seagulls Alka Seltzer tablets?? For the same reason kids in my area talk about feeding rice (like when you throw rice at a Bride and Groom) to the birds... So that the bird(s) will explode when the rice expands in their tummies. Didn't you know if you eat watermelon seeds they will germinate in your tummy and you'll get a big ole belly? Oddly enough other seeds (tomato, strawberry, cukecumber, raspberry, etc) don't do this.
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2kids10horses
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Post by 2kids10horses on Sept 9, 2012 13:39:14 GMT -5
Maybe it's the vibrations created from all the canoodling that caused the mound to collapse on them...
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❤ mollymouser ❤
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Post by ❤ mollymouser ❤ on Sept 9, 2012 14:52:27 GMT -5
I just squoosh ants.
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2kids10horses
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Post by 2kids10horses on Sept 9, 2012 14:55:45 GMT -5
molly,
You wouldn't want to step in a fire ant hill.
Imagine your foot covered with about a 1000 hornets in 2 seconds.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2012 15:20:27 GMT -5
Regardless of what happens to the ants... aren't you basically feeding mice or rats or whatever other pest will come around next?
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Sept 9, 2012 15:39:01 GMT -5
Maybe it's the vibrations created from all the canoodling that caused the mound to collapse on them... The nest queen does an awful lot of canoodling during her 6-7 year life span. She will lay up to 100 million eggs during that life span if she's not squashed.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2012 16:26:40 GMT -5
Sarah, have you ever EATEN grits? Basically, once they get wet (and I guess expand, but I never thought of it like that), they basically turn into cement. I'm not kidding. It's basically impossible to wash dried grits off of something. You have to scrape it off. I personally like them, but I don't imagine the mice or rats are eating the leftovers. Hey, 2kids, is that what you are doing? Basically, collapsing the mounds under the weight of dried grits? Now, that might really work.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Sept 9, 2012 16:35:55 GMT -5
I read that fire ants tunnel pretty deep under ground several feet... maybe the mounds collapsed (the mounds seem to be the stuff the ants pulled out of their tunnels) but the ants are still down there in their warren of tunnels and chambers happily eating grits AND canoodling...
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Sept 9, 2012 16:37:35 GMT -5
I personally like them, but I don't imagine the mice or rats are eating the leftovers.rats and mice will eat all sorts of stuff -- at least grits are organic and technically a 'food' even if it has hardened into cement.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Sept 9, 2012 16:41:14 GMT -5
I was sitting here thinking, "Believing that everything has a purpose, I wondered what good are ants on this planet."Ants are nature's Teeny Tiny Garbage Men... they clean up stuff and move stuff around. They do alot of work and are important to any ecosystem. If anything, the Earth is more suited to bug survival than it is to Human survival... if god made anything in it's image - it's probably bugs...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2012 17:42:56 GMT -5
I think we are missing the obvious.........eating grits will kill anything!!!!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2012 17:52:33 GMT -5
Sarah, have you ever EATEN grits? um, I live in Kentucky.
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Sept 9, 2012 18:04:44 GMT -5
I was sitting here thinking, "Believing that everything has a purpose, I wondered what good are ants on this planet."Ants are nature's Teeny Tiny Garbage Men... they clean up stuff and move stuff around. They do alot of work and are important to any ecosystem. If anything, the Earth is more suited to bug survival than it is to Human survival... if god made anything in it's image - it's probably bugs... I don't know if you ever went conch diving in the Caribbean, but after you get the meat out, the ONLY way to clean those pretty shells is to leave them outside so the insects do their work. Otherwise, you'll never get it clean on your own, and it will stink to high heaven.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Sept 9, 2012 18:16:48 GMT -5
I was sitting here thinking, "Believing that everything has a purpose, I wondered what good are ants on this planet."Ants are nature's Teeny Tiny Garbage Men... they clean up stuff and move stuff around. They do alot of work and are important to any ecosystem. If anything, the Earth is more suited to bug survival than it is to Human survival... if god made anything in it's image - it's probably bugs... I don't know if you ever went conch diving in the Caribbean, but after you get the meat out, the ONLY way to clean those pretty shells is to leave them outside so the insects do their work. Otherwise, you'll never get it clean on your own, and it will stink to high heaven. Welts-I've been there and done that. The ants picked it clean.
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vonna
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Post by vonna on Sept 9, 2012 18:23:04 GMT -5
I think we are missing the obvious.........eating grits will kill anything!!!! Yep - hkguy I agree. . . it's just usually a slooow death depending on how much butter and cheese you add to those grits . . . oh -- and bacon bits and bacon grease . . .
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2012 18:23:22 GMT -5
Sarah, Kentucky is a border state. So that didn't really answer the question of whether you ate grits or not. It's like when you get in the border states, they don't really understand the concept of iced tea. I'm just teasing you, by the way.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2012 18:25:07 GMT -5
Now Vonna understands how to prepare grits. I will have to "exalt" her for that knowledge.
But, Vonna, grits still make great cement if you need to patch something.
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