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Leaf cutter ants


Plumeau1

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Their nest is very deep so you can kill them for a while but they come back. There is a product you can put arount the entrance of their tunnel and they will take it inside the nest and wipe out a bunch. That works best but at best you can control them not destroy them for ever.

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Trompo and other pelletized insecticides partially work, as the workers carry some pellets back into the nest.

Know that the established underground nests can be quite large, easily being 1 meter by 1 meter by 2 meters, with multiple chambers. This means that a few pellets scattered in their path in our yard is generally not enough to kill the whole nest.

It takes putting a pile of pellets next to the entrance of the nest. Then, after the ant colony is weakened by that first round of poison and they stop carrying the poison into the nest, then pour powdered laundry detergent down the hole, and liberally sprinkle the ground over the nest with powdered laundry detergent, then cover/block the entrance/exit hole with soil. This method works because the powdered laundry detergent literally dissolves their big underground fungus gardens.

I've completely killed off 4 different leaf-cutter ant nests this way,
while using just pellets, or using just powdered insecticide (which contaminates the water table), do not eliminate the nests.

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Mixture of vinegar and baking soda at their hole, you need to do it a couple of times and works great.

Why do people think Home Defense works so good when the ingredients is 99% water?

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Metilico 3 - parathion ..... on the nest. It's a powder. Buy mine at a Vet/Agro store. Haven't seen any around here for a few months

l7j24h22metilico2.jpg

,

Parathion is toxic to pets, and toxic to humans and toxic to water supplies.

Parathion takes over 6 months to break-down in outdoor conditions.

Side effects of low doses of parathion exposure "include impaired memory and concentration, disorientation, severe depressions,

irritability, confusion, headache, speech difficulties, delayed reaction times, nightmares, sleepwalking and drowsiness or insomnia.

An influenza-like condition with headache, nausea, weakness, loss of appetite, and malaise has also been reported (12) "

Unless we can guarantee that the parathion powder won't dissolve into a neighbor's well, it really shouldn't be used.

http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/metiram-propoxur/parathion-ext.html

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A natural remedy that is working for us is rice. We put hills of rice at each ant mound. We seem to have disabled two hills so far and the other ants do not attack the garden plants any longer. I was told the ants explode when they eat the rice. I can`t confirm this by observation.

The Grower`s Group recommends Ambush.

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Hi,

I wanted to let you know the way we get rid the leaf cutters.

natural remedy we use is warm water with a small amount of sugar (a few pinches to 1tsp depending on amount you are making), mixed with yeast. Once the yeast is active we pour or spray it on the ants, they take it back into the nest and it corrupts their food cultures. This is rather invasive to their nests but harmless to us. This is not an instant fix and could take a week or 2, we apply it a couple of times for a week and just wait.

However you should know that they keep away fire ants so once the nests are killed keep an eye open for fire ants building nests.

Good Luck.

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The carpenter aunts do not have mounts they make holes.. I have a neighbor that have an vaery large yard..the size of a block and the ants go back and forth so eliminate them on our side and they come back no matter what we do.If you neighbors do not eliminate them as well you are fighting a losing battle.

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Trompa. Available at the Garden Center in Riberas. The only thing we've found that really works.

Yes. This works great. You don't need to know where the nest is, although that always helps. Just use a little and they carry it back to the nest.

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I wish that I could find the nest, du ring the day, all we see are the clippings on the ground, the y must be doing their tricks at night?

Yes they are nocturnal. You have to go out at night with a flashlight and follow them to find their nest.
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The last time I looked for Trompa at the Garden Center she was out. I found it at another place in Riberas on the lake side across the street from the Presbyterian Church and the old Vigolari furniture. Red building. Just east of the LTH Autoparts store. Also got a red sticky paste that you paint on the trunk to keep them from climbing.

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Trompa is available many places. Several agricultural supply store in Jocotepec. Casa del Plomero and Jara in Ajijic. Home Depot. I've bought it other places also (where?).

Fito Klor is a product that works in the same way and is available widely. I've been using both for years but they aren't permanent solutions. I don't think anything is.

A couple of suggestions were given above that I haven't heard of so I will have to try them. I've used laundry detergent on it's own but it didn't work.

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