Fire ants and Quail in Georgia?

[JJMR794]

very nice Alan!

 

[jbowyer01]

Club soda doesnt work on fireants, I've tried it

. Vinegar helps some but other than that we have to use a powder (an insecticide). I dont use it near my birds and I only use it when the mounds get out of hand. I hate using anything thats not natural but last year they got so out of hand that they attacked one of my doxies and she had bites all over her (she was laying in the sun). I chalk it up to living in the south, you have to deal with fireants as well as mosquitos and gnats.

 

[Penturner]

Anyone ever tried spreading DE on the mounds. keep it there and every ant that leaves or enters has to walk through it. Of course wind and rain will eliminate the DE.

 

[Intheswamp]

*Very* few native quail here in south central Alabama. There use to be 4-5 different coveys here on the 300 acres. A couple of years ago I had the occasion to search for a downed RC airplane in the far corners, specifically what we call the "plum thicket"....hands and knees crawling area. Anyhow, suffice it to say that *no* quail were stumbled upon...deer, yes...quail, no. We've had fireants ever since I can remember (early 60's) but there were plenty of birds back then...even on into the 80's. Since the 80's, though, they've steadily dropped in number around here. It was in the early 80's when I saw my first live armadillo close to Camden, Alabama...it was so novel that I stopped the truck and got out to have a staring contest with it. Since then, the armadillo population has exploded down here. I'm sure that the fireants play a role in the quail's demise, but with a large population of coyotes and armadillos it's amazing that any ground dwelling critter has a chance at surviving and raising their young. I lay more blame on these last two varmits than anything else.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[CORNISH_MAN]

Quote:
DE does not kill ants Ive already tried it.

 

[UmbraVulpis]

Quote:
It doesn't kill them but it does deter them in sheltered areas. I had fire ants getting into one of my feed bins and they left after I spread DE around and in it.

 

[Intheswamp]

I've never tried it, but for several years folks have been talking about the success with using orange oil to kill fire ants. Supposedly "melts" the exoskeletons of the ants.

Ed

 

[kingmt]

I don't have fire ants but chlorine seems to work well on all the other ants around here.

Our quail population has dropped next to if not none in my area. When I was a kid my dad would talk about how the quail population had dropped & you didn't see as many as you used to. I seen a covey a few times on the farm but it went away. Then when I moved back here a few years ago I though I jumped a covey on my property before I started cleaning it off for somewhere to live but I never seen them again.