Fireants and Electricity

The red imported fireant is a real pest all over the south. They build mounds everywhere and they're hard to get rid of. Their bites are extremely painful and alot of ants swarming and biteing could even kill a small animal or even a human child.

Fireants also are attracted to electricity and can short out well pumps and other electrical items. They shorted out mine a couple of times this past summer.

Does anyone know why fireants are attracted to electricity? And also has anyone here found the best way to get rid of them without poisoning the environment?

I always have several mounds in my yard that I'm constantly battleing and they seem to be increasing every year. I can't go in the yard without being bitten at least once.

Remedies anyone?

[edit on 4-12-2006 by elaine]

You might try this stuff for controlling them... naturalginesis.com...

Best guess I could find on the electricity attraction question is: they detect something 'sweet' in the ozone produced by electric sparks, i.e. the sparks from just about any type of electric motor contacts.

Get a breeding pair of ant eaters and start reproducing them in your backyard, eventually they will eat out the supply of ants.

But seriously if the are attracted to electricity that is their achilles heal, you could quite easily make up an electrocution pad for them so they walk onto it and whammo they are humanely euthanised.

I have to add I just recently moved into a new house and have found the ants to be major problem. I have literally had to poison them 20-25 times but they keep coming back once it washes away.

Hi elaine,

Here is a link that I found which lists some non-toxic methods that might or might not work for you. Fire Ant Controls I live in MD, and the fire ants are just making thier way here. (Thanks to longer warm weather periods) Luckily they havent found thier way to my yard yet!! I used to live in TX, and GA and they were a major pain in the butt.

One of my worst childhood memories that still circles in my mind, is of a girl who fell head first into a mound. It was horrible and they ended up having to take her to the hospital because she had so many bites. (This happened at my daycare)

I remember wishing there was some animal whose only diet was fire ants, especially when one would sneak into my shoe! I hope there is something listed in the article that will help you.

Originally posted by elaine
Does anyone know why fireants are attracted to electricity?

Useful Guide To Solving Fire Ant Problem

What do fire ants eat and how do they survive?

There is much controversy in answering this question, however we would take the following position and try to justify our position. The worker ant does not have a digestive system but relies on survival energy from other sources. Many think the fire ant forages for food for himself and the queen, however, what is foraged goes into a food bank to decay. It is the energy from the decaying process that the ant acquires energy.

I've actually never experienced a bite from a fire ant but they are poisonous.

It's extremely hard to get rid of a fire ant infected area but it is possible with the right poisons. It would seem that the queen ant can live up to 20 years, but the other fire ants only last 28 days. There doesn't seem to be any other way to get rid of this problem, and if there is I haven't found it.

Originally posted by elaine
I can't go in the yard without being bitten at least once

Elaine you are fighting this fire ant problem the wrong way. If you attack a fire ant mound every fire ant will rush out of the mound, and they will attack whomever or whatever they percieve as a threat with any means necessary. It would seem that using a spray product is the only way.

Good luck!

I remembered my own ant-story the other day I passed this page.
But the interface then started to change, everything became unstable, new skin was being implemented... no connection.
Mine was down for 15 hours.

Found back to your ant-story, and what amazes me is - which I knew nothing about - that ants get attracted obviously by some affects of voltage activity. High molecule frequency and the ionizing of atoms. Maybe they can feed on energized particles in the air.
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Had a laptop for about a year. Used it in this tropical climate I'm in. Early I did see some activity of ants around where I mostly had it placed. I better make clear, these are the very smallest ants, only 1-2 mm, the most numerous and succesful creature on the planety, I think.

As long as you can keep them out of your food they're no problem. If nothing to feed on, they'll just move on.
And that's what I thought they did, because what would they eat in a computer.

I seemed to had scared them off until a day I saw eggs being caried through the vent holes on back. Chemical warfare made there terminal disappearance.

For the next months my laptop went slower and slower.
Some times the screen would flip and I had to fidle settings to get it up again.
There was never any causes to blame, just how it felt when you powered it in the morning.

One night, after a very slow and time consuming download, the screen just scrolled in black. I watched it, maybe the 1½-2 secs it took, not too quick before it was all black - and sadly never have returned to light again.

On every part of the inside there were stains and streaks from their presence. It was hard to say whether it was etched or otherwise eaten.

It is very convenient with a laptop, but think twice about the enviroment you're gonna use it in. But I still miss my Acer Notebook.

I remember wishing there was some animal whose only diet was fire ants,

There is....its the south american giant anteater.

Turn a large stainless saucepot upside down about 3 feet away from the ant mound. Within 48 hours the ants will move their nest to the solar heated space under the pot. Fire ants love heat. Relocate the pot in 3 to 5 foot increments across your yard over the next few weeks until the nest is satisfactorily away from people.

Begin habitually placing food scraps near the new nest site allowing the saucepot colony to become dominant on your parcel. You might need one in the front yard and another out back.

You will never be able to absolutely get rid of ants... but at least now you are in charge of where they live.

Sri Oracle