Fire Ants..

wyknot · **Joined:** Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:36 am **Posts:** 827

Don't know if the South America female phorid flies reaches as far North as Mexico but if so you may want a few around to look after those nasty little red fire ants?

"They hover over fire ants (pictured a file photo), then inject their eggs into the ants with a needle-like appendage.

The egg grows and the resulting larva generally migrates to the ant's head. The larva lives there for weeks--slurping up the brain and turning the ant into a "zombie," in some cases compelling the ant to march 55 yards (50 meters) away from its colony to avoid attack by other fire ants.

Finally the baby fly decapitates its host and hatches, exiting through the ants head, as shown in the following pictures.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... index.html

hockables · **Posted:** Fri May 15, 2009 11:37 am

You'd hafta be watchin a bug for a hellava long time ta notice that!!
Knarly

hound dog · **Joined:** Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:12 pm **Posts:** 95

we have them in our garden. They are here believe me!

PamelaDelafield · **Posted:** Fri May 15, 2009 9:28 pm

One good thing about fire ants in the garden, if you have pets the fire ants will kill fleas in the yard. Regular ants will kill harmful pests on plants especially flowers and tomatoes.

hound dog · **Joined:** Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:12 pm **Posts:** 95

and the carpenter ants will eat all your plants and make freeways in the lawn and the black esquilinas will invade the kitchen and the red ones will sting the heck out of you.
So I guess we have no flees, no bugs ,no plants and itchy feet!

nananancy · **Joined:** Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:05 am **Posts:** 89

those little blue packets of artificial sweetener are perfect for killing ants. i just grabbed a packet from a restaurant and sprinkled it across the ants path and , voila! its amazing how many types of ants we get here. there are some super tiny ones that are interested in my damp soap.....

sparks · **Posted:** Mon May 18, 2009 6:59 am

http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/antpoison.asp

Quote:

As for the claim that aspartame (regardless of its intended use) effectively kills insects such as ants, no evidence supports that assertion. Many common, non-toxic substances (such as talcum power or pepper) serve as effective deterrents to keep ants away from household areas, simply because the sprinkling of those substances significantly alters the ants' habitat by disrupting the scent trails those critters typically follow.

arbon · **Joined:** Tue Nov 25, 2008 4:08 pm **Posts:** 615

We were at El, Tajin, Veracruz, ....................

looking at some ants, and a kid came along, did something with his finger on the ground, and the ants started going in a circle, and kept going.

(No more ants joined the circle and none left)

SallyAnne · **Joined:** Mon Nov 24, 2008 7:00 pm **Posts:** 668

I have heard that people in Texas also use diatamaceous (sp) earth, used in swimming pool filters. The idea is that this is microscopic and SHARP, and cuts the ants' bodies when they walk over it.

No idea if it's true!

hound dog · **Joined:** Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:12 pm **Posts:** 95

I spoke too soon now we have an invasion of flying ants not very big but really annoying. They are not as big as the nucuz in Chiapas so we cannot even serve them for dinner. Our Xolo is eating them of the floor but what do we do about the ones flying around? I know they too will go away but where do they come from.
The tiny ones red and black are the esquilinas, they are pretty tenacious and smart.

Arrested Development - Ex-Pats Mexico

Fire Ants..

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