Fire ants..HELP..

[Preezy]

Hello guys, so ive had my beardie for about 2 months now. I have a large bin where i house the 500 crickets ive been buying each month. Everything was going well...until now. I checked the bin today only to find that it has been infested by ants...but not just any ants...FIRE ants. The worse part is that ive kept this bin in my room this whole time, so yes this means that now i have an infestation of fire ants in my room...and i have a carpet floor. So not only do i have to deal with the possibility of my feeders dying from the ant attack..now i also have to make sure my beardie doesnt get attacked by them as well. I;ve already been bitten multiple times by these things and its freaking me the hell out. What do i do?

Yes my room is clean, and yes i have been periodically cleaning the bin out as much as i can..(except this time i may have been a bit pre-occupied and probably took a little bit longer than usual..)

 

[CooperDragon]

That sounds rough! Fortunately I haven't had to deal with fire ants so I don't have firsthand experience. You may want to try the orange oil, soap, and water combination described here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/get-rid-of-fire-ants-zb0z1307zsor.aspx

 

[kingofnobbys]

If I were you .... I've heard fire ants are vicious , I'd move out and take the little hatchling with me in a nice clean plastic tub and get the pest exterminators in to eradicate the ants from your house (fumigate ?) and treat your garden and lawn to get rid of the nest they are coming from, it's the only way to be sure you and the little beardie are safe. They are sure to kill it otherwise if the discover it in the enclosure (drawn my the beardies food).

As a stopgap apply someFluon paint , just paint the slurry around the base of the tank and anywhere you see the ants crawling - they'll be following a feramone trail.

The Fluon when dry is very slippery and the ants are unlikely to get past the dry Fluon barrier.

DON"T USE INSECTICIDAL SURFACE SPRAY OR ANT BAITS.

 

[Rankins]

How did this turn out?

 

[Preezy]

Ants are STILL a problem..and its even worse than before. A colony of 1000 crickets got decimated within the week...and the ants have multiplied. I really don't know what to do about this lol.

 

[Rankins]

That's not good!! Those things give nasty stings!!
I'll do a bit of research to see if I can find something useful to get rid of them. I know they are extremely hard to eradicate....its a bad situation to be in.

 

[Rankins]

Here is an idea, it works great for killing carpenter ants. I live in the woods near some logging areas. Every year I get swarms of carpenter ants and termites flying everywhere outside my home. Before swarming starts I crawl into the crawl space under my home. I sprinkle Ortho Max Home Defense granuals everywhere under the house. Outside I spray the liquid kind all around my foundation. Then I broadcast the granuals in my yard around the foundation.
It kills by disrupting the nervous system of bugs that touch it. They don't have to eat it, just walk over it. 10 mins later they walk around like they are drunk...then eventually die.
The spray says its safe to use inside the house...I would not do that!! I wear a mask while spraying it and I can still smell it, and it doesn't smell safe. It also gives me a bit of an asthmatic reaction and I'm not even asthmatic.
But granuals under the house don't stink at all...and it seems much safer than the liquid.
Fire ants are really bad to have in your home. Their bites are nasty, and they can be a fire danger around electrical items. For some reason they are attracted to electricity and love to get into electrical equipment and in fuse boxes.
But the good news is they have to eat, so they must foriage. If they can't find food in/around your home they will have to leave to find it. So when they head out to find food they will likely touch the areas you treated with the poison. Which means they won't be coming back. It wouldn't take long for the colony to be too small to sustain itself.
But if it is a satellite colony off of a larger colony you might have to treat every year to keep them away from your home...
"Crazy ants" are even worse than fire ants, they actually kill off colonies of fire ants. Hopefully you don't have them. But I think the treatment would work the same way.

 

[SusieJohnson]

I think the best option is to call some professional who has experience and manage with this issue. There are numerous alternatives available, but you need to pick the best one with proper research over the web. To know more you can visit www.yalepest.com online.

 

[Rankins]

Kingofnobbys already suggested the professional exterminator route. That of course would be the best bet.

 

[Beardymama33]

Hello guys, so ive had my beardie for about 2 months now. I have a large bin where i house the 500 crickets ive been buying each month. Everything was going well...until now. I checked the bin today only to find that it has been infested by ants...but not just any ants...FIRE ants. The worse part is that ive kept this bin in my room this whole time, so yes this means that now i have an infestation of fire ants in my room...and i have a carpet floor. So not only do i have to deal with the possibility of my feeders dying from the ant attack..now i also have to make sure my beardie doesnt get attacked by them as well. I;ve already been bitten multiple times by these things and its freaking me the hell out. What do i do?

Yes my room is clean, and yes i have been periodically cleaning the bin out as much as i can..(except this time i may have been a bit pre-occupied and probably took a little bit longer than usual..)

if you are sure the bin has no live crickets to save, try a vinager and hot sauce spray in the bin . also try and follow the ants to their source and put grits (slow cook works best) on the pile. they take the grits in and eat them and then the grits expand and kill them off. also get the liquid ant traps (they sell them at most hardware stores) and place them where the ants will get them and not your beardie. they take the poison back to their hill and it kills them all.