Raising fire ants proves to be more successful goal

WINEDALE— Another sweet morning, calm and quiet, on the front porch of the old farmhouse inWashington County. I’ve just finished feedingmy fire ants.

Raising fire ants is one ofmy hobbies here atWinedale. I got into this activity more than 25 years ago in Houston, before we bought this place. So I’ma veteran fire- ant raiser, and youmay feel free to ask questions.

What I feedmy ants is poison bait. Many kinds of this bait are on the market, and some of it gets pretty costly so you need to be cautious. I wish I had saved all the bait containers I have emptied, feeding these ants. I bet they would fill a garbage truck.

And yet I’ve had spectacular success. More success, in fact, at raising fire ants than anything else I’ve ever tried. After allmy years of putting out poison bait, I havemany more ants than when I began.

Now, in the beginning, I fed poison to these ants with the intention of killing them, since they appeared to be pests. But eventually I saw that the bait didn’t work. My fire ants don’t die from poison or even from the worst sort of trauma, as other creatures do.

Wasps, for instance. Spray poison on a wasp nest and all the wasps fall dead, right? They are gone. Or a scorpion, strolling across the front porch. Stomp him, and he is dead and he’ll stay that way.

But a fire ant? No way. Stomp a fire ant and he does appear to be dead. But if you walk away and return later to the scene of the stomping, you will not find a dead fire ant. Because he has put himself back together and walked away.

Little wonder, then, that these ants thrive on poison bait. They cannot be killed. This is why I have been so successful at raising them.

Back when the ants were becoming established, I heard about several methods being used to fight them. One of these involved boiling water. Just pour a bucket of hot water on a mound. I tried this a few times.

It did seem to kill a good many ants. Look, there they lie, dead as Millard Fillmore. But go back to thatmound a couple of hours later, and you won’t find one dead ant.

Youmay say, Yeah, but that’s because the ants that didn’t get scalded came up and got the dead ones, and carried them down in the hole.

But you didn’t see that happen. You’re just guessing. What I say is, the boiling water didn’t kill one ant.

Did I ever tell you aboutmy pressure- switch theory?

Before we got a new pump put on our water well, we were always having trouble with the switch that turned the pump on and off. The problem was caused by fire ants.

They would gather in gobs on the contacts of that switch, waiting for the circuit to close and send 110 volts of current into their bodies. As any electrician will tell you, fire ants are attracted to electricity that way. Why?

My original thought was that they were committing suicide because they were tired of ant life— which is nothing but work, seven days a week. But I’ve changedmy view.

They weren’t committing suicide. They were just taking on a little pop. To an ant that thrives on poison, 110 volts through the thorax wouldn’t be anything but invigorating.

Your top entomologists in this state say that fire ants will always be with us. So, if you can’t get rid of ’ em, why not join ’ em? They make a fascinating hobby.

Try dropping half a potato chip on a mound, and watch the action. See how they demolish that treat and go underground with it.

Or place a small piece of meat 10 feet from a mound and check your watch. See how long it takes the lookouts to find the meat and make the announcement that brings the workers out to attack the feast.

Sure, you get stung now and then, but it won’t hurt long, and fire ants do make a contribution. We have no ticks on this place, and very few chiggers, and no lightning- rod salesmen at all.

And since I decided to stop fighting fire ants, we haven’t seen one copperhead snake in the yard.