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Re: Bill's on fire ants and killing the queen

Janet Wintermute wrote:
>
> About 5 years ago, while I was doing a book with our big fire ant guy Homer
> Collins (Gulfport, MS), he told me of a then-new phenomenon that had him
> plenty worried.  Fire ant colonies began having *two* queens instead of just
> one.  Life insurance for the entomological sector.  Bad news for the Mammalia.
>
        I heard about this with a connected rumor that Amdro may be partly to
blame. Theory was that Amdro kills all the nests that -don't- have
multiple queens, but any nest with a reserve Queen propagates... very
scary...
        More on Boiling water. I moved out to a patch of land that was just
over-run with Fire Ants. I couldn't afford Amdro for so many (2-300
beds) so I had to try something. For a few weeks I had a 3 gallon pot on
the stove all the time. Whenever it would boil I would take it out and
pour it on a bed. Some died, some moved (I presume), some came back and
got a second treatment. The second treatment always seemed to work, I
figured it ws because they had to make a smaller nest so it was easier
to reach the queen.
        This has to be better than putting Amdro near food plants, also better
than pouring chlorine into the soil. If the fire ants are not actually
in your food plants, amdro or that new stuff (supposed to kill 'multiple
queens') that I can't remember the name of but it smells like the
proverbial dead skunk, might be worth the risk.
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