Spring is here, and our bathroom is FULL of Babies!

[bvar22]

13. Try Boiling Water.

It works OK for us.

Scoop out a hole in the middle of the mound 2 - 3 " deep
and fill the hole with boiling water from a large pot.
We use a 6 quart pan.
Wait a few days and then examine the mound.
Worker ants left alive may try to rebuild even after the queens and brood are dead,
but the attempt will be feeble, and then decline.
If the mound is building Up again vigorously,
repeat the process.

Fire Ant Colonies can have more than one queen,
and they can make another queen if there are eggs left alive,
so the key here is repeated applications plus digging out the heart of the mound.

What you do with the ants & eggs you dig out of the heart is up to you.
We currently spread it all out on a flat board in the sun,
but I'm not sure that kills them, and they may be sneaking off and building another colony somewhere.
I'm considering dumping the whole small shovelful in a strong bleach/water solution,
but then we can't reuse the soil.
We burn bottled gas to boil the water, and I am reluctant to boil another large pot to dump the shovel of ants into
Any good suggestions are appreciated


There may be some very local collateral damage to the roots of anything planted close to the mound,
but we've had some success with this method.
We are currently "chasing" one particularly persistent colony down the edge board of a raised bed.
Every time I think I've killed it, it (or another) reappears a little downstream from the spot I treated.

Good Luck!