Fire Ant Control

Would you pay for fire ant elimination in your yard? $50.00 per acre per six months?

  • Yes (Guaranteed)

    Votes: 9 36.0%

  • No

    Votes: 16 64.0%
  • Total voters
    25
BigBody79

BigBody79

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Location
Lumberton
Would you pay to have fire ants eliminated from your yard is the poll question? For this question lets assume $50.00 per acre of grass per six months
The second question can't go in a poll? If you were to start a new business just for fire ant control what would you call it?
(This is all speculative, but I hate fire ants and I have a line on a good product not available in stores)
 
I'd pass, but I know folks that are frustrated enough to go for it, if guaranteed.

I got a cheap simple killer that I mix up....100% environmentally safe, and works better than any poison I've found.

Now, if I could just get rid of the black sugar ants in my yard....
 
no. stuff with spinosad (earth friendly) or cyclomethicone (wear a mask) can be had pretty easily these days and work well. you can also buy products w/ acephate but it isn't good around food gardens and pets. why pay when i could spray or apply i guess i my point. lol, don't ask why i know all that.
 
i would for some of the lawns my dad's business does out at the lake...im majorly allergic to em and had to go to the hospital due to hittin one of their mounds with the trimmer last year...hate them damn things
 
Too easy to kill to pay someone to kill them for me. Really it's not even a big problem. If I find an ant hill I put $2.00 worth of crystals on it and they are gone in a few days.
 
GubNi said:
Too easy to kill to pay someone to kill them for me. Really it's not even a big problem. If I find an ant hill I put $2.00 worth of crystals on it and they are gone in a few days.
Click to expand...

Maybe not a big problem in the Mtn. City area yet... but down towards Charlotte it's a problem... I just always spayed for them in my yard and they'd happily pack up and move over to the neighbor's yard :lol:
 
I guess I've watched too much Discovery Channel... But I say no if you have any kind of garden or have any kind of termite issues. Fire ants eat anything that harms a garden or wood and do a better job than any pesticide. That is if you are overrun by them and not just like one little nest. And they do nothing to harm a garden or wood. They fight off the smaller piss-ants that always find a way inside a house as well. Besides, it's inevitable. Once they're there, might as well enjoy!:beer: You can keep them killed off as long as you're throwing money at the issue. They will return soon after.
As long as you ain't running around bare footed or have toddlers or such, you get used to them. Stay off them and they'll stay off you. And they are a seasonal thing so you do get a small relief for the Winter. I'd be out of control though if I had small children getting bit...
 
yeah Id pay.
As long as it was guaranteed etc.

For my 1 acre or yard we have probably spent $400 controlling the damn things this year.
 
No, I've got an acre my house is on, and it's easy enough to kill them on my own.
 
I wouldnt pay for it. Like has been stated, there are advantages to having them...to a point. I have 2 kids...so I take care of them when the first pop up in the yard. I can clear out my yard for about $15 a year. Ive only had 1 mount of actual fire ants show up this year....so far.

I had a cousin that swore he got rid of his fire ant issues by blowing the queen up. I saw him do it to a couple of hills one day....

he had a 3/4 inch rod he would drive into the middle of the hill, down to the bottom of it. He would quickly pull that rod out and replace it with a 3/4 inch pipe, drop down some lit firecrackers (decent sized ones)...pull out the pipe and let them pop.

His thinking was that the concusion/explosion from the firecrackers that close to where the queen usually was, would kill her and in turn the hill would die.

All I got out of what he was doing was a good laugh. On one occassion the firecrackers didnt slide through the pipe and lodged right at the bottom of the pipe....scared the crap out of him when they popped! Between that and the number of bites he got standing around the mound doing all this......just made for some good fun!

I think all he probably did was cause the ants to move. THats what most of that ant stuff does....makes them move.

I have some stuff that I use to kill them....when what I use gets in contact with them, (they get wet from it) the reaction of their chemicals (the stuff that burns when they bite you) to the chemicals I use causes them to literally pop instantly. Works great at actually killing them. Not the safest stuff in the world, but Ive only had to use it a handfull of times.

chris
 
I've heard of many bizaare ways that people told me about. Most were trial chemicals that never got approved for resell or something that was banned back in the day or something crazy like that. One was something like a powder that acted like giant razorblades that ripped the ants apart as they went through it. Another was a chemical that altered their minds and made them want to eat each other. I've heard if you scoop a bunch from one mound and pile on another they will territorily fight? Of course you can google myths about fire ant control tactics that go on and on. Hard to believe in any of them but can sure try?
Funny, I tried rubbing down my dog food bowls with vasaline to keep them out once (something I read) and they make a bridge with leaves. Lasted about an hour. I think the only thing they can't figure out how to cross is water.
 
we must just have them real bad.

I just took a quick walk to try and count for this thread.

I counted 61 mounds bigger than hand size in diameter and 7 bigger than my size 14. I just treated all these a week or so ago.

Anyone who could wipe those out for $50...come on
 
SkyHiK5 said:
we must just have them real bad.

I just took a quick walk to try and cunt for this thread.

I counted 61 mounds bigger than hand size in diameter and 7 bigger than my size 14. I just treated all these a week or so ago.

Anyone who could wipe those out for $50...come on
Click to expand...

Sounds like my yard. I've all but given up trying to walk around it barefoot.

$50 to wipe'm out... c'mon over.
 
must be a south of I40 thing.

no problems in my neck of the woods.
 
If I could sell this service to just 15% of the people I talked to i'd be happy.

Thanks for all of the replys. I got thinking, I'm asking a group of men, who normally work on there on trucks, like a challenge and probably like to take care of their own house. I don't think that this is my target market.

No risk, no reward. Right?


Any good names?
 
I would, and did.
Not fire ants, but sugar ants... Not long after we bought our first house, they appeared in the kitchen one day out of nowhere, millions. We'd spray, they'd vanish... a week later, pop up elsewhere.
We broke down and got a contract w/ Brown's Pest Ctrl, i think it was $60/qtr for everything. it took 3 visits, and the owner coming out himself, they finally got rid of the ants. For the contract they also covered bees and wasps which we had chronic problems with (nothing like mowing the yard and discovering a digger-bees nest hole-in-the ground.. they don't liek getting mowed over!).
Yes in many cases you can deal w/ a mound or two or three yourself, but if you have kids or a wife who dosn't like bugs, or like SkiHi a lot of em - a big pain.
IMO $50 over 6 months is chump change compared to the kind of $$ we spend on our little hobby here.
 
Regardless of what you're using, you will have to have a pesticide license to sell your services (legally) to kill them. And then insurance...
If you're going to do it, $50.00 per acre is very cheap
Good luck
 
R Q said:
Regardless of what you're using, you will have to have a pesticide license to sell your services (legally) to kill them. And then insurance...
If you're going to do it, $50.00 per acre is very cheap
Good luck
Click to expand...

exactly

and to add, there are not many products left on the market that even a certified ground pesticide applicator can get his hands on, most all insecticides, that homeowners cant legally purchase anyway are restricted use products

says the out of work Golf Course Superintendent
 
No, my experience with exterminators is that while they might have a guarantee they are a PITA to work with. They do not like making repeated trips to the house just because you found more ants. In the end I just fired them and spread the amdro myself. It's easier than calling the each time you find a hill.
 
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