How to kill a fire ant

http://www.comcast.net/news/science/index.jsp?cat=SCIENCE&fn=/2007/05/07/656217.html&cvqh=itn_fireants

That's got to rank up there in ways to check out.

 

Not unlike the editorial board of the Washington Times and its readership.

 

Wanna see something cool? Swat a wasp, pick up the carcass and drop it near an ant mound. Once those little buggers find it, they're all over it like Rosie O'Donnell at a Shoney's buffet. Keep watching, and in an hour or so they'll have pretty much hollowed out the wasp. But they're still working, so it's like a morbid puppet show -- the ants' movement as they dissect the wasp causes the wasp to move its legs and body.

 

The Tupelo FireAnts died due to lack of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupelo_FireAnts

 

Simple solution: Run from the south as fast as you possibly can. The pests are very hard to get rid of.

 

If Rick Perry wasn't already on the payroll of Merck and TXU, the fire ant would be extinct in the Lone Star State.

 

This was a King of the Hill episode, the one where Hank fires Dale from from doing thrice-weekly exterminations and gets a new Raleigh St. Augustine lawn. Dale then drops some fire ants, including a few queens, on the lawn. Hank and Peggy buy a kit in which they put domes over the anthills and release the flies. But Dale knocks over the domes overnight and the infestation continues.

I know too much about cartoons.

 

They're far worse in Texas.

I've heard stories about hordes of them taking down cows.

 

Well there's also the "cow killer," Velvet Ant, which is actually a wingless wasp.

Be afraid...be very afraid.

 

Good Lord. That thing gives me the creeps.

I'll never mow the yard again.

 

Check out the report under Science & Space at cnn.com. It seems as though scientists in Hong Kong have discovered a virus that, when introduced into bait, will kill the mound.

 

We had these. They were called cow killers because supposedly, the cow would unknowingly swallow it and the ant stinging it from the inside could kill it. We found a dead calf by the pond one afternoon... wonder if that's what got it?