If there is anything that makes me cringe and shake my head in disbelief, it’s seeing school and community officials (or parents!) sprinkling toxic fire ant killer on lawns, playgrounds and other recreational areas.
Seriously?
Why would you EVER sprinkle poison where children run and play, kicking up pesticide-laden dust to breathe, track into the house, get on their skin and otherwise absorb into their growing bodies? You don’t necessarily have to eat a chemical to experience significant and negative biological exposure. Toxic pesticide powder and granules have no business being sprinkled anywhere near areas where children will be playing! Even adults would be well advised to steer clear.
Unfortunately, our modern society seems obsessed with convenience and quick fixes, rarely taking the time to stop and think about the long term consequences of a given action or activity.
If the stuff is sold at Home Depot or used on school playgrounds, it must be safe, right?
Wrong.
Let’s take a look at the active ingredient of the most popular fire ant killer brands on the market: Hydramethylnon.
Conveniently, the other 99% of the ingredients are unlabeled for these products.
Hydramethylnon is an organic compound commonly used as an insecticide for cockroaches and ants. It is in many popular brands of fire ant killer including Amdro, Combat, Blatex, Cyaforce, Cyclon, Faslane, Grant’s, Impact, Matox, Maxforce, Pyramdron, Siege, and Wipeout.
Hydramethylnon Dangers
According to the National Pesticide Information Center, the EPA has classified hydramethylnon as a possible (group C) human carcinogen due to the development of tumors of the uterus, adrenals, and lungs in rats. This classification means that, although hydramethylnon has been shown to cause cancer in one strain or sex of a laboratory animal, there is inadequate or no evidence that it may cause cancer in humans.
Besides the development of cancerous tumors, here are some of the negative reproductive effects when rats were exposed to hydramethylnon which is commonly found as the active ingredient in commercial fire ant killer:
- Male rats dosed with 200 and 400 ppm hydramethylnon over the course of two generations were less inclined to mate, and evidence of testicular degeneration occurred at all but the lowest dose. Hydramethylnon primarily affects the testes. Rats exposed to high levels of hydramethylnon may have prostate atrophy, testicular degeneration, and germ cell damage. Exposures of this magnitude may also result in small, soft testes of reduced weight.
- Fewer females became pregnant with implantation rates reduced.
The Fluoride Action Network Pesticide Project lists hydramethylnon as a possible human carcinogen and endocrine disruptor with the potential to be an environmental contributor to the development of cancer.
Organs affected include:
- Kidney
- Blood
- Bone
- Lungs
- Adrenals
- Testicles
- Thymus Glank
- Uterus
Opt-out of Pesticide-Based Red Ant Bait
While the EPA, local school administrators, and your local hardware store seem to think this stuff is harmless, as a mother attempting to raise healthy children who hope to have grandchildren one day, I will opt out, thank you very much.
Natural Fire Ant Killer That Works!
What is even more shocking than the liberal and mindless use of insecticides for fire ant eradication purposes is that these critters are so easy and cheap to control naturally!
And, when I say cheap, I mean it. How does free sound to you?
Here’s how I have controlled fire ants for the over two decades I’ve lived on our property in Central Florida, a place notorious for intractable fire ant problems.
I simply heat up a tea kettle full of boiling water and slowly pour it down the hole in the fire ant mound. That’s it! You don’t even need ant bait!
Not only will you kill the queen (she can’t get away quick enough from the boiling water coursing through the mound), but you pretty much kill every single ant in the mound as well.
Sometimes you will need a repeat treatment within a day or two, but usually, a single tea kettle full of boiling water will do the trick to eliminate even a large, thriving mound of fire ants.
The key is to make sure the ants on and around the mound are completely relaxed and undisturbed before you start pouring in the boiling water. If they are upset or anxious in any way, the queen will be long gone by the time you start the treatment.
Walking up slowly and quietly to the mound is the way to go. Don’t do this after your kids have been playing in the yard for a while, as the ants will already be quite distressed from the commotion.
Early morning works very well for this natural fire ant treatment in my experience.
Below is a video I filmed of me getting rid of a fire ant mound right near our driveway. Take a look and see if this method of fire ant removal might work for you too. It’s certainly worth a shot.
For those of you who may ask why I don’t use diatomaceous earth (source), the reason is simple. DE doesn’t work very well for fire ants in my experience.
You will feel good knowing that your children run and play in a yard around your home that is completely chemical free with nothing that can harm them … only help their immunity with exposure to good, “clean”, probiotic-filled dirt untainted by health disrupting pesticides.
More Information on Controlling Pests
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Steps to Remove a Tick Safely and Easily
Nontoxic Pest Control Ideas that Work
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Fast and Effective Fly Repellent
Attracting and Using Ladybugs for Garden Pest Control
How to Resolve a Flea Infestation Naturally
Quick and Easy Homemade Fly Trap
Spider Repellent Guaranteed to Work
Fast Acting Mosquito Bite Remedy That’s Probably Already in Your Kitchen
I live in southeast Atlanta and my prescription to kill off fire ants is a cheap bag of powered sugar and a box of baking soda ..mix the to together , then sprinkle the mixture all around the mounds & then on top of mound. Those little soldiers will carry the mixture to the queen and that will kill her and the mound .
a friend was on the jury at a talcum powder/ovarian cancer trial that had been brought by the family of a victim. It wasn’t the talc that caused cancer; it was the asbestos the company used as a cheap substitute.
If the pile is small enough, I use a shovel and scoop the whole pile up and throw it in my fire barrel. Only for fire ants. They are a invasive species so I don’t feel bad at all about killing them. Other types of ants are native to the southeast and actually signs of a healthy ecosystem. I worked in pest control and the we were not a green company. But they did not like to use chemicals on the native ant populations. Hope this
Do you have any suggestions for a yard that is totally infested? Boiling water doesn’t seem feasible for hundreds of ant piles, especially if you may have to do a repeat treatment. Our yard is massive! By the time I walk around and get a few of them, the rest of the colonies will be upset, which seems like it will disrupt the process anyway.
You may need to call in the professionals. There are certified green insect control companies now such as Nvirotect.
Baby powder, must be TALC BASED, not cornstarch based. Sprinkle on top of ant mound until covered. 24 hours later, ants will have abandoned the nest. Does not kill the ants nor the grass – causes the ants to MOVE. Chase them around your property, every day or two, causing them to expend all their energy on constant nest moving. This weakens the nest and eventually, they die (or move off your property). Works on all ants including fire ants.
They don’t even sell talc baby powder anymore do they? There are concerns that it may cause cancer. Also sprinkling directly on the mound disturbs the ants and they won’t eat the bait. Bait must be sprinkled around it. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/talcum-powder-and-cancer.html
I’m so grateful to find this convo. I have a fully xeriscaped, gravelled backyard with careful additions of flowering shrubs and trees. The fire ants are horrible, but how do I ID the nests in a gravelled space? Can’t tell where they’re coming from.
Yes this works. But it WILL kill the grass. So you have to decide which is more important to you. I’d lived in Central Florida all my life and have tried many of methods. I like this one because my yard is basically a desert most of the year anyway.
Problem with this method, Mounds can reach down in the ground twelve feet or more, also fire ant mounds contain multiple queens, also mounds have exits that exist many feet from main ant mount that Queens will escape from. Best method to eliminate ants would be use a Fire ant Bait, suggest Ortho Brand.
Ortho brand is totally TOXIC! What you are saying is true, but I’ve never had a fire ant mound that hasn’t responded to this method …. sometimes it takes multiple treatments but you can definitely get all the queens.
Ive found the best thing for fire ants in the house is to use bait-based traps. I bought the liquid Terro kind and both of Raids ant traps in case they liked one kind better. I kept refilling the type they seemed to prefer until they stopped coming. 🙂 I also use EcoSmart ant spray to to keep them out of places while the bait is working – it only lasts a few days because its made with essential oils but it works very well for those few days. Be careful using it around cats because some are really sensitive to the oils. (Not like going to die instantly sensitive, just sick and nauseous while the oils are around, so just stop using it if you notice anything.)
I have terrible fire ants & tried this but didn’t work. Nothing is working on these ants. It’s also along the foundation so can’t use too much boiling water there. Please help; tried everything; ready to have pest control put down poison but don’t want to . We do only natural everything.