Got a fire ant problem? It seems everyone has a solution

VIRGINIA BEACH

The best way to get rid of fire ants is to set the mounds on fire.

No, pour boiling water on them.

No, just use some grits.

No, gasoline is better.

No, only pesticides will do the job.

Homeowners, farmers and state officials can agree on one thing: Fire ants are pests. But when it comes to getting rid of them, it's hard to find consensus.

Since first appearing in Virginia 20 years ago, fire ants have spread to at least eight counties and 10 cities, including in Hampton Roads, according to the state agriculture department. To prevent further infestation, the state placed a temporary quarantine on 11 of those localities late last month.

The agriculture department also announced it would no longer pay to treat fire ant mounds in the quarantined areas. The population simply has grown too large.

Fire ants can damage crops and deliver a painful sting, which can be particularly dangerous to those who are allergic to their venom.

Now residents must battle the bugs on their own.

Fire ants made a home in Bill Belvin's backyard on Kellam Road a few years ago. The city treated the mound, but the ants just moved to a new location in the yard, he said.

Frustrated, he decided to try his own method.

"I'm out there with a blow torch and a stick frying them," Belvin said. "People thought I was crazy."

When that didn't work, he turned to the Internet and found a different solution: pouring boiling water on the mounds.

"Sure enough, after a couple of days, every one of them was gone," he said. "The boiling water goes down in there and kills the queen, kills the eggs, all of them."

To this day, he said, his yard is fire-ant free.

Willis W. Carter, a Carrollton resident who battled fire ants while living in Texas, Alabama and Louisiana, says gasoline, kerosene or paint thinner will eliminate the mounds.

"I've seen those ant mound s 3 or 4 feet high," Carter said.

He said a chemical called mirex used to be the best solution. But not anymore: The government banned its use in 1978 because of its impact on the environment, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Hamilton Allen, an entomology graduate student at Virginia Tech, has seen all sorts of fire-ant solutions.

"Growing up in South Carolina, my uncles would do all these snake oil methods," he said.

They would pour grits on the mounds or light them on fire, he said. But none of it worked.

Allen is studying the state's fire-ant problem to help decide which pesticides work best. The goal is to convince the chemical companies to register more of their fire-ant products in the state, he said.

In the end, none of the home remedies really works, and some can be dangerous or hazardous to the environment, said Frank Fulgham, business director of the agriculture department's consumer protection division.

The problem is that the moment fire ants sense a disruption to their colony, they immediately move the queen to a different location via underground tunnels, Fulgham said. That's why solutions such as boiling water don't always work, he said.

He especially warned against using gasoline or fire.

"If you pour enough gas to saturate down into the ground where the nest is, then the last thing you'll want to do is light a match around it," he said. "No environmentally sensitive type of person would ever recommend doing something like that."

Plus, it's illegal to have open fires in Virginia Beach, said Battalion Chief Tim Riley, a spokesman for the Fire Department.

Fulgham recommends using a fire ant bait that will weaken the colony and impede its ability to move to new locations.

It can take multiple treatments over several years to get rid of them, he said.

"None of these treatments are very good at 100 percent effectively eradicating the nest," he said. "That's why fire ants are so hard to get rid of. You have to come back over and over."

The agriculture department uses various baits to kill fire ants, said spokeswoman Elaine Lidholm. She declined to recommend a specific product.

In Virginia Beach, Taylor's Do It Center on Independence Boulevard carries two Green Light granule treatments for $7.99 and $12.99. In Norfolk, The Home Depot on North Military Highway offers a granule called Amdro for about $15 and several Bayer Advanced liquid and granule treatments for about $13.

Andrea Coron, executive director of the Virginia Pest Management Association, said homeowners should seek professional help.

"With things like kerosene and gasoline, not only do they pose a potentially serious risk of burns, inhalation and things like that to the person using them," she said, "but I just don't know that they're effective."

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com