Ants!

[Ryan50]

in the boat. Just moved to Charleston SC and have the boat stored covered on trailer at a storage lot. Out on the harbor Saturday I feel the sting on my toe and sure enough, fire ants were in floor under the helm. Also found some in the cabin. I've never had them before in the boat and no food is ever stored in the boat. I sprayed them but there is no way to get to where they must be hiding. Is there a bait or poison that I can sprinkle around in the boat while it is stored? Anyone else dealt with this before? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Ryan

 

[Bayou Dave]

Re: Ants!

Fire ants are hard to get rid of. I have been trying to succesfully kill them for 30 years and have never been 100% succesful. Go to Lowes, they have all kinds of fire ant killers there. You will find that sometimes they will die or just move their hill to another location.
The only sure fire way to kill them is to pour gas on the hill and burn them up. But, the gas will seep into the ground which is not a really good thing for the environment. Good luck!

 

[dingbat]

Re: Ants!

Don't know about fire ants, but I had little sugar ants in my boat for two seasons. Tried spraying etc. with no luck. Finally tired Terro liquid ant baits. Came out to the boat a couple of days laters and I had dead any all over the boat. I've not seen a live ant since. good stuff.

 

[Ryan50]

Re: Ants!

That's exactly what I am looking for Dingbat! Where can I buy the stuff? Lowes? I leaving work early to handle this problem.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: Ants!

the OTHER big problem is that fire ants import dirt to build the nest.... I've seen multiple 5 gallon buckets filled removing them from buildings and equipment

could be a real problem on a boat with clogging a bilge pump... I suggest an aggressive cleaning once you kill em... hose under the deck wherever possible... when you see muddy water you've found it

 

[Alwhite00]

Re: Ants!

That's exactly what I am looking for Dingbat! Where can I buy the stuff? Lowes? I leaving work early to handle this problem.

They have it at Wal-Mart.

LK

 

[Ryan50]

Re: Ants!

Thanks smoke. I had not considered that. I will clean it up good once they are dead. I appreciate all the advice guys-thanks.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Ants!

...The only sure fire way to kill them is to pour gas on the hill and burn them up. ...

That method only works on steel-hulled boats.

You could also scuttle the boat, drown them, and raise it back.

I don't know much about them but it seems they must have an in-ground colony where you park your trailer?

I heard an interesting method (not for boats, for land): take a shovel full from one colony and dump them on another colony; they will kill each other off.

 

[Malibu Rudder]

Re: Ants!

The Terro bait works well because the ants carry the poison to the nest so the majority of them are killed at the source. You will see some die in the bait but the real action occurs at the nest. I do not know if fire ants feed off of Terro but if so this should calm things down a bit for you. If you have Rural Kings around, they handle Terro as well. Orange box.

 

[Alwhite00]

Re: Ants!

Hopefully they are not feeding on soft wood in the bowels of your boat. I recently saw a post on here about that)

LK