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Aloha all. Here is a situation we face and most likely many others in the coming years.
My wife and I live on Oahu, we hope to transition to our property in HPP June 2018, to build a small homestead. We own an acre lot with 40 14 yr old avocado trees. A friend comes by to cut the grass and manage the trees/invasives when needed. He's capable of handling everything for me.
I bounce back every so often to visit and noticed that every tree is covered in them. You could see their network of highways running up and down the trunks. It's out of control and I assume this will be quite the task to manage these guys. I would like to get a head start and be proactive (as much as one can) so when we make the official move, this issue won't be as severe. 2 dogs and our newborn will be living on the property and am worried about the potential threat.
For those who are knowledgeable in treatment practices, I have a few questions I hope to get some insight on. Perhaps this thread could be useful for others who are in similar situations of moving to develop and live on their raw land in the Puna Area.
What are the best practices for controling LFA so they don't enter your property?
* On my lot, there are 2 adjacent parcels that are vacant with dense veg, I'm kinda alone in this battle, fighting on all fronts..
Should I bate every tree with the best up to date product? Should I fling the bate and set up a perimeter all around my neighbors vacant land? Will this be enough?!
Should we just wait and start the contain and control measures when we officially move over?
Is there any hope!? These bastards are so evil. Will it be possible to completely ride our land of LFA?!
Any insight on the current situation in Hawaii and the most recent, best practices people are using, would be very appreciated!
We've been using Amdro with the locally made pvc traps baited with peanut butter, nailed to every tree.. Others have sprayed their entire lot with Malathion, which may be more effective, but it's Malathion. In any case, you should have boots on ground, because weather like we've had this last week will wash away any progress you make.
Last edited by leilaniguy; 08-22-2017 at 02:15 AM..
You should contact the State Department of Agriculture and report the infestation. They may have some advice. I have used Amdro Mound Treatment Fire Ant Killer with some success. Malathion will kill the ants above ground but not the queen and the rest of the ants underground.
As a 5-year+ veteran in the war against LFA, here is my advice to you:
Your property is already infested with LFA, there is no point in trying to eradicate them until you get here. After you get here, hire a professional company to eradicate them for you. The process takes several visits, lots of different products, and takes several months. Once the ants are controlled (eradication isn't actually possible in most situations, but most people don't notice the difference between 80-90% controlled and eradicated) you can perform the "maintenance" yourself and it will be a lot cheaper than paying a company to do it for you.
All the Hawaii Ant Lab (HAL) info is here: Welcome to the Hawaii Ant Lab Their published info leans on the side of caution. For example, they tout the Tango bait recipe for use on the Big Island, but they don't actually use it themselves when they are eradicating LFA outbreaks on neighbor islands because they know Tango is less effective. (In my experience, actually completely ineffective, but others have reported success with it).
The best bait granule I've found is Siesta, and I have tried them all, even ordering stuff off the internet not available locally. Siesta is also what all the pros use. It can only be used on ground ants. For the arboreal ants you will need to make the HAL gel bait recipe that uses Provaunt. Because it's not labeled for food crops there is a different bait recipe using Tango for food crops, however I found Tango to be a waste of time and money. Non-bait remedies like contact insecticides work but you'll be applying them repeatedly because it will only kill the ants it contacts, not the colonies. Contact insecticides are really only good for quick knock-downs, the ants will come back. In fact there is literature that suggests that when contact insecticides are used the colony detects the population plunge and queens respond by laying more eggs. I know that some of the professional companies use them as part of their rotation (ours did) but they seem to treat symptoms only, not the cause. Contact insecticides, when used, are used at the end of the "eradication" cycle. You want to use the bait poisons first so all those worker ants will take the poison to the colony and share it. You don't want to kill off your poison delivery mechanism (the worker ants) unless your house is infested or something and you need instant relief. The pros use contact insecticides primarily as a barrier treatment to protect ant-free areas. Contact insecticides kill other non-target species including bees. I'm not a fan of them.
Edited to add: As far as I know, there is not a single commercial product sold (like at Home Depot) that was developed for LFA. The fire ant remedies they sell are for regular fire ants that only live in mounds on the ground. Completely different species. That is why you will need to use 'alternative' remedies like the HAL recipes, Siesta, etc.
Last edited by terracore; 08-28-2017 at 09:13 PM..
I had checked out what the Australian pest control is doing with those little buggers. LFAs are a huge problem in Queensland. They use a combo product of A) poison for the workers and B) birth control for the queens. Best combo product here in the USA is EXTINGUISH+ (hydramethylnon + an insect growth regulator (IGR) The TANGO is way too messy and has ONLY birth control.
We ordered a bag online Extinguish Plus Fire Ant Bait - 25 lb Bag ($200). 1 lb per acre is plenty for one application. You may need 2-4 application but the stuff will not get bad. It's $15 or so for a single pound.
By itself the tiny corn granulates are too large to be carried by the tiny ants. Soak a pound at a time with cheap Canola oil overnight. Then spread it with a spreader (I use CoffeeMate jugs with holes drilled into the screw-on top). We have only a few large trees but granulates stick to the bark and leaves due to the oil.
The ants then suck the protein rich oil out of the granulates and spit it out at the nest. Workers and larvae die quickly and the queens get infertile. After 2-5 days you may find some helpless queens sitting under leaves and rocks but no workers anymore. The queens die from starvation.
Hydramethylnon attacks the ants central nervous system, causing death by inhibiting the formation of ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate).
Without the formation of ATP, ants simply run out of gas, they just don't have the energy to feed and groom. After a single feeding there are no immediate symptoms of poisoning. So they don't learn to avoid it. This condition progresses until the insects die within 24 to 72 hours. You will see the following day the ant roads are getting slower and more sluggish. In the hives it's like a boring party where the music stopped.
Then walk your property often and wherever you see them (or they fall on you) reapply. You will develop an eye for them. A good indicator is also the absence of any other ants. So when you see little black ants reappear, you're good.
My neighbors didn't care even that they brought them in with mulch. So I just threw some bait over to them and they are free as well.
How dangerous is it for other animals or you to apply it?
Hydramethylnon is very effective against target insects, it has low toxicity to non-target animals. So don't freak out when a chicken picks some of the granulates.
Since we figured this method out LFAs don't scare us anymore.
I didn't have much luck with the Extinguish Plus Fire Ant Bait, the ants stopped getting baited to it after about the third application, and it didn't seem as effective as Siesta (either in baiting or efficacy). Does the canola oil change that dynamic? How do you kill the ants in the trees? How much canola oil do you use?
Sorry for all the questions but inquiring minds want to know!
I had read about people in Australia using soybean oil to make Amdro (very similar to Extinguish Plus, corn grits with poison) more attractive. I had an email dialog with one of the head HAL researchers about oils. My question was if peanut butter is the bait component of the Provaunt and Siesta recipes, why not use peanut oil instead of corn oil in their recipes? His reply was that they tried all the oils with equal efficacy, and corn oil was the cheapest.
The point about baiting can't be understated. Regular fire ants take the poisoned corn grits back to the colony. LFA are much smaller than the corn grits, so that is not an option for them. They suck the poison out of the grits and transmit it that way. I've wondered if simply putting Siesta into a food processor and turning it into a dust that LFA can transport would be effective, but on the other hand I have theorized that the tiny grit chunks would quickly become ineffective bait mechanisms because the LFA aren't baited to corn grits that have got damp due to rain or humidity.
I'll second Terracore's recommendation for Siesta. I've had LFAs in the house... just drop a few granules in their midst, they immediately start sucking on them and running back to their lair to share, and by next morning, no more LFAs, forever. I treat the house and yard monthly, alternating with the standard Provaunt bait mix that can be sprayed up into the trees. The Provaunt is harder to evaluate as it's impossible to see whether or not there are ants up high (I suppose I could shake the trees and see if I get bit, but my dedication to science has its limits). All told, It cost about $20 a month in supplies. It's not 100% foolproof but I've gone from getting bit almost daily to once every few months or so (harvesting bananas seems to be the most hazardous activity). I'm also in a situation where I am almost surrounded by jungle, so they are never going to be eradicated, but they certainly be controlled.
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