ShareThisOld-fashioned remedies such as grits, soap or wood ashes won't kill fire ants, but hot water and a shovel will, suggest experts at the Florida Cooperative Extension Service.
Carefully pour about 3 gallons of boiling hot water on the mound. If that doesn't work, dig out the mound. First, take steps to protect yourself. Wear long pants and sleeves, closed-toe shoes or boots, and gloves. Sprinkle body powder on the shovel handle and on the inside of a bucket (so ants can't climb either). Then, on a cool morning when unsuspecting ants are surfacing (they stay deep underground during hot, dry weather), dig out the mound and place it in the bucket. Pour boiling water in the bucket to kill the ants.
If a drought has parched your lawn, why not consider a more drought-tolerant, environmentally friendly alternative? The easiest way to remove turf is smothering, using these steps from lesslawn.com: Layer newspapers 10 to 12 pages thick on top of the lawn to create a barrier that will kill grass and weeds. Overlap newspaper pages where they meet. Next, cover papers with up to 10 inches of mulch. It takes several months to completely choke the lawn, but you can plant right away if you dig planting holes through the paper, remove the sod, then replace papers up to the edge of the hole. Top with mulch.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service www.scrippsnews.com)
Must credit St. Petersburg Times
