INCUBATING w/FRIENDS! w/Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs No problem!

[Fire Ant Farm]

Fire Ant
I found yesterday that my back yard is infected by the small fire Ant! It is an invasive species here! I have got stung!
I bought today a special gel that attract the worker ant they eat it snd take it to the nest and feed the qwine and kill her!
I pout it ont their trail and they just swarmed on it! I really hope that thst eill be inofgh. If not I should do it another time.

It's not my fault!!!!!

I don't like using pesticides in my yard, but a long time ago I did try a highly recommended ant killing product. I swear you could almost HEAR the tiny peals of laughter - didn't work AT ALL. And it was expensive. Most people here in Fire Ant Land will tell you the same (even if they don't care about using pesticides), and have various more home grown remedies.

The only thing that has worked for me is a cocktail of orange oil and compost tea infused with garlic. Works very well (and also fertilizes the soil). I can share the recipe if you want. In the end, you want to be able to move them away from where they are a nuisance (e.g., in a walkway or in a garden bed). This will do that pretty effectively without poison, in my experience.

(For what it's worth, around here, the ecology is such that fire ants keep away ticks and fleas in your yard. Kill the fire ants, and you end up with fleas and ticks, esp. an issue if you have dogs.)

- Ant Farm (I don't REALLY farm fire ants, and I CERTAINLY don't export them!!!!!!!

)

 

[BantyChooks]

It's not my fault!!!!! 

I don't like using pesticides in my yard, but a long time ago I did try a highly recommended ant killing product. I swear you could almost HEAR the tiny peals of laughter - didn't work AT ALL. And it was expensive. Most people here in Fire Ant Land will tell you the same (even if they don't care about using pesticides), and have various more home grown remedies.

The only thing that has worked for me is a cocktail of orange oil and compost tea infused with garlic. Works very well (and also fertilizes the soil). I can share the recipe if you want. In the end, you want to be able to move them away from where they are a nuisance (e.g., in a walkway or in a garden bed). This will do that pretty effectively without poison, in my experience.

(For what it's worth, around here, the ecology is such that fire ants keep away ticks and fleas in your yard. Kill the fire ants, and you end up with fleas and ticks, esp. an issue if you have dogs.)

- Ant Farm (I don't REALLY farm fire ants, and I CERTAINLY don't export them!!!!!!!  )

Thank goodness- I was getting a bit worried there!

 

[Chaos18]

It's not my fault!!!!!

I don't like using pesticides in my yard, but a long time ago I did try a highly recommended ant killing product. I swear you could almost HEAR the tiny peals of laughter - didn't work AT ALL. And it was expensive. Most people here in Fire Ant Land will tell you the same (even if they don't care about using pesticides), and have various more home grown remedies.

The only thing that has worked for me is a cocktail of orange oil and compost tea infused with garlic. Works very well (and also fertilizes the soil). I can share the recipe if you want. In the end, you want to be able to move them away from where they are a nuisance (e.g., in a walkway or in a garden bed). This will do that pretty effectively without poison, in my experience.

(For what it's worth, around here, the ecology is such that fire ants keep away ticks and fleas in your yard. Kill the fire ants, and you end up with fleas and ticks, esp. an issue if you have dogs.)

- Ant Farm (I don't REALLY farm fire ants, and I CERTAINLY don't export them!!!!!!!

)

I know some people you could mail a box full of them to for me

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:

I know some people you could mail a box full of them to for me

I have to get my NFAIP certificate before I can ship over state lines (That's National Fire Ant Improvement Program, of course). You should have seen the guy who came out to do testing, drawing their fluids for testing with a teeny tiny needle....

(I'm lingering here waiting for this %^#$& headache to go away, but I'm gonna have to give up in a few minutes and just head to work...)

- Ant Farm

 

[kwhites634]

Quote: Don't you know that a sure way to get rain is to lay a field of hay down? Works every time

 

[Chaos18]

I have to get my NFAIP certificate before I can ship over state lines (That's National Fire Ant Improvement Program, of course). You should have seen the guy who came out to do testing, drawing their fluids for testing with a teeny tiny needle....

(I'm lingering here waiting for this %^#$& headache to go away, but I'm gonna have to give up in a few minutes and just head to work...)

- Ant Farm

Just let me know when you can ship them and I'll send the money

Hope your head feels better soon.

 

[h2oratt]

Current situation....10 min ago

 

[h2oratt]

Good luck!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Benny, in case I don't show back up for a while, here's a post I made on the Texas thread. (I can dig out the recipe for Garrett juice if you want, but compost tea, molasses and orange oil works just fine and is less work.) @Akrnaf2

What is this said natural way of getting rid of fire ants??? You must share!

I got it out of Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening (by Howard Garrett & Malcolm Beck). If you have the ability to buy Garrett Juice where you are, the easiest is to mix 1 part orange oil and 2 parts Garrett Juice concentrate, and use at anywhere from 2-6 oz per gallon (make it up fresh each time). I use a lower dose (1 oz orange oil/2 oz Garrett juice per gallon) if it's near my plants or in a pot (in case you might burn roots), and full strength (2 oz orange oil/4 oz Garrett juice per gallon) for mounds in the yard/not around my plants. The book says to use as a spray, but I use it as a mound drench. Works better than anything I've ever used, totally knocks out really established big mounds. AND it helps the plants. I just repotted several citrus trees, including a sweet kumquat tree that had had its pot badly invaded. I had soaked that pot with the lower dose of anti-ant stuff about 2 weeks ago. Repotting yesterday, the roots were the healthiest of all the repotted trees, and that's the only thing different about that tree's care.

If you don't have access to Garrett juice (or can't make some - there's a recipe in the book, in involves compost tea, molasses, garlic, and some other stuff), you can also use 1 part compost tea, 1 part molasses, and 1 part citrus oil (again, using this mix at 2-6 oz per gallon). They hate compost tea, but I have found that compost/compost tea alone is only partially effective (in my yard). I think it used to be marketed premixed as "Anti-fuego", but I'm not sure it's still available.

I don't try to eradicate them everywhere, just where they are specifically where I don't want them (e.g., invading growing space). As I understand it, fire ants in your yard help keep out/away fleas (can't remember if it's ticks as well). YMMV.

The book is amazing with all sorts of other natural pest control ideas, as well as a great veggie book. I used it so much that my first copy actually fell apart and I had to get another one. Another great book is the Texas Bug Book...

- Ant Farm

Edit: I see you're in Round Rock. I'm in the San Antonio area. You shouldn't have trouble finding Garrett Juice and orange oil. Try your local nurseries or Lowes..."

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Never saw anyone use a thermometer on bread before Lol! At least you knew it was done! Beautiful! I love a good hearty crusty bread. Mother-in-law complains, thinks her husband works his sour rye too much, 'makes it tough'...That's what I love!! about it! I don't like soft bread.
When I bring sandwiches to work, any sandwich, always toasted, have had people at work notice and ask if that's all I eat is toasted bread sandwiches.... DW only buys cheap white bread...only way I can eat it...mush bread...

I can't remember the last time I bought plain white bread but I bet it has been close to 30 years.
We don't use much bread of any kind any more. I usually have a few sandwiched per week.
All this talk about homemade bread had me drooling but I'm thinking about cutting out bread completely until I lose a little weight.

I am so sorry!

The thermometer for incubation needs to be sensitive to temperature fluctuations and be accurate in the lowest plus or minus range possible. If the thermometer does not read in tenths, you do not want to use it! It other words, you want it to be able to read 99.5, not 98, 99, or 100.

I doubt that the fluke thermometer would work. the Brinsea spot check was made to do one thing, tell temps for incubation.

I am sorry about the bad hatch! Unless your humidity was below 25 or above 60, It was not the cause.

I clean my incubators with Lysol all purpose cleaner.

I use Lysol too. I'm going to look into something for fumigation though.

Nervous. Freaking. Wreck. Some may remember my hen Pipsqueak hatched a beautiful chick last Monday....due to an accidental stagger she had another developing embryo that we had to pop in a makeshift incubator last Wednesday. Today is day 18 and when candled before lock down I had a clear internal pip. Around 4:00pm the egg was bopping around and tweeting. Then it stopped. I have heard it a few more times and it wiggles every now and again but no external pip yet. I know it's still early and this little guy has the odds stacked against him as this is my first time and I thought the hen was gonna do the work. I have given him the best environment with the limited resources and experience I have. Is it normal to be this nervous???

Were you able to get humidity up in your makeshift incubator?

I can't eat Eagles cos of religion rules, and you cant eat bald eagle because it is illegal in the US even have a feather of it! So how you know the tast?

I think he was joking.

You ain't gonna believe it!
Mower took a dump again last night
Ignition switch kaput again
Should be an easy fix..That's what I thought last time.

I put the chicks out yesterday evening....past time; only 6-8 weeks old

Bummer about the mower. My life would have been better if it weren't for mower problems.

My chicks ranging from 15 to 28 days old have been out in the coop without heat for a week.

I had 3 chicks hatch yesterday, right on time but no pips in the last 2 eggs. I guess I'll pull the chicks out today.

Bummer about the mower. I understand bummers. Hay was cut yesterday morning, and the 30% chance of rain turned into a huge long rain last night. Oh well, it was hay it or brush hog it.


Good morning everyone. (Whites, Chaos18, motorcyclechick, Banti, and anyone else who I missed).

Hopefully you didn't rake it yet and it can dry out.

In the refrigerator, there is a mug of chicken broth. I was going to try to drink coffee this morning, and rather than committing coffee abuse, I was going to drink the stuff in the fridge.
It gets worse than you think.
I was going to make iced coffee. With creamer and sugar.
Now you know where this is going?

I haven't had coffee in about a year and a half.
I wasn't feeling very well yesterday morning after a late night. Tea didn't taste good. I found a bottle of Zing Zang bloody mary mix in the fridge. I had a big glass of it. It really hit the spot.

I've got a large black ant here. Gave them some poison that was supposed to do the same thing only in granules. They carried it back out and tossed it in their dump. Wasn't too worried about them but they've been expanding their territory lately.

Good luck on yours

Those big black ants have been increasing in numbers here the last few years. This year they attacked my bee hives and completely destroyed one of them.