[Groop] Ants!!!!!

Tue Jun 17 21:03:00 PDT 2008

 Gary,

Can you share some photos of your ant-killing adventures?  I am following this drama with great interest, and want to see it before my eyes.

-Anil

-----Original Message-----
From: Grossmann, Gary (DOR) <GaryG at DOR.WA.GOV>
To: groop at groo.com
Sent: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 5:53 pm
Subject: Re: [Groop] Ants!!!!!

Thanks to everyone for the ideas. I should explain 
that this GINORMUS ant colony is in my "back 40" which is how we refer to the 
back half of the one (1) acre I live on that has never been landscaped and is 
all wild and surrounded on three sides with similar property.  Our concern 
is that the colony will expand towards humble Grossmann Manor.  

I decided not to go with Terro because the grits and 
borax/sugar is supposed to do basically the same thing:  Kill the workers, 
but not before they feed it to the queen and kill her  And Eric's article 
notwithstanding, Borax sounded safer, and my understanding is that Grits are 
only poisonous if you were born in New York City.  I'll let you know if it 
works.  

By the way, I dumped one of the 55 gallon drums of ants 
on another ant hill located on public property because I had read that if you 
mix two ant hills, they will kill each other.  So I was hoping for a major 
Ant Fray, but I was disappointed.  They just started working 
together.  Bummer.  

From: Alexander Durnan 
[mailto:alexian.emperor at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 
2:01 PM
To: Grossmann, Gary (DOR); Tone at moon-shine.net; 
groop at groo.com
Subject: Re: [Groop] Ants!!!!!

Try Terro. It is poison,but you only have to 
use a little bit.  Its a syrup that you pour a drop on a small card, then 
the ants lap it up.  Within a day or two...no more ants. They feed it to 
the queen and she dies.  As goes the queen, so goes the colony.  I've 
used this successfully myself many times.

Alex

----- Original Message ----- 

From: 
  Grossmann, Gary 
  (DOR) 

To: Tone at moon-shine.net ; groop at groo.com 

Sent: Tuesday, 17 June, 2008 11:48

Subject: Re: [Groop] Ants!!!!!

Hi Tone!

Thanks for the advice.  I had read about 
  diatomaceous earth in my Internet search for effective ant killing without 
  complex chemical compounds.  I was a little dubious about it working in 
  the perpetually moist Pacific Northwest, but that concern may be 
  misplaced.  

btw, I did not use gasoline.  First, I dug up a 
  lot of the hill (and ants) and put it (them) is a 55 gallon drum I have and 
  just carted it off about a quarter mile.  After doing that 3 times, I had 
  a large flat spot with a hole in the middle and about a zillion ants going 
  crazy.  Then I spread a couple gallons of ammonia around, 
  hoping that if I hadn't already killed the queen that the ammonia would 
  do it.  (It's very toxic but breaks down very quickly.  Works great 
  on underground yellow jacket nests.)  However, it only temporarily slowed 
  down the ants, which started rebuilding.  So that's when I dug 
  up even more ants, making the hole even deeper and wider, and then 
  sprinkled several pounds of sugared borax and some grits.  
  Supposedly when they eat the grits, the grits swell up inside and the 
  ants blow up.  Sort of the opposite of diatomaceous 
  earth.  When i did the second round of digging I did not find 
  anymore larve, so maybe the queen is nailed and the remaining workers are 
  just on autopilot.  One can hope. 

Actually, Larry had the best idea.  I need to find 
  an ant with a tiny orange tunic and a pair of teeny tiny katana and put him in 
  the ant hill.  

Gary G. 

  From: groop-bounces at groo.com 
  [mailto:groop-bounces at groo.com] On Behalf Of Tone
Sent: 
  Monday, June 16, 2008 8:37 PM
To: groop at groo.com
Subject: 
  Re: [Groop] Ants!!!!!

Gary,

  Rather than blowing up a drum of gasoline or whatever it is you are 
  doing to get rid of insect pests, try something called “diatomaceous earth.” 
  It is a white powder that is composed of fossilized skeletons of marine and 
  freshwater organisms that lived 20 million years ago. A protein in it attracts 
  roaches and some other insects while the power scratches up their waxy outer 
  coating. Within a day or two the bugs die of dehydration. Also, if you leave 
  the stuff in place and do not get it wet, it will continue working and 
  working.

  Any bug walking through the stuff gets scratched up like it is glass or 
  something to them. It is nontoxic and useful against ants, earwigs, fleas, sow 
  bugs, silverfish, millipedes, roaches, and weevils. There might still be a 
  company in Mexico, 
  Missouri (where 
  Mexico is the 
  name of the town not the country) by the name of Brookstone, which sells the 
  stuff under the product name “Insectigone”. This might be an old number for 
  Brookstone, but maybe you can try your luck at it: 
  800-926-7000.

Sometime environmentally friendly 
  non-toxic solutions to problems are the best solutions. J

_TONE_

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