Controlling Fire Ants safely without synthetic chemicals

Fire Ant mound

Fire ants, an imported plague, are hurriedly building mounds about now. I control them naturally instead of putting chemical poisons around. I'm certainly no entomologist but this homemade solution has always worked well for us.

quickly stick something (and
remove it) into the center
of the mound before pouring

I use a mixture of 40% orange oil, 40% compost tea and 20% liquid molasses. Shake. (Then it needs to sit for about a half-day to blend completely)   Mix about 8 ounces of this mixture with a gallon of water. Then I drench the ants' mound with it, making sure it soaks deep into the ground and doesn't just run off.

This stuff won't harm pets, children or birds. If your nursery doesn't stock these safe, natural ingredients, you might want to reconsider shopping there. 

Yes, birds eat ants. Fire Ants, however, are a relatively new introduction to their world.  It may take a few hundred years of evolution before they can handle Fire Ants.


Birdseed gets blamed a lot for killing grass. The truth, however, is that there is absolutely nothing in birdseed that kills grass (Scott's/Miracle-Grow had put something in theirs that poisons birds, but they got caught and stopped). But any birdseed killing grass is a total myth!

Grass sometimes dies beneath a birdfeeder when the accumulation of empty seed hulls gets so thick that it acts like a mulch - preventing sunlight from reaching the grass. Result; the grass dies.