Over a million deceased ants found on my boss’s land.

Tawny or Caribbean Crazy Ants. We had a big issue with them a few years back down here in Texas. You’d spray and they’d pile up high enough that the survivors would just walk over the dead and never touch the chemical. They’d get into electrical boxes and die off with the piles growing high enough to damage the equipment. Spraying a repellent contact killer like pyrethrins will kill a shitload of them, but you really need to apply a neonicotinoid pesticide such as Fipronil to handle the problem as it’s undetectable and designed to be tracked back to the nest instead of killing on contact. And for anyone saying this is fake, it’s not. This is a legitimate issue with Caribbean/Tawny crazy ants. Source: I’m an exterminator.

Thank you! He plans on reapplying

Look up a chemical called Taurus or any liquid Fipronil to mix up and apply. Won’t take much, just a crack and crevice treatment wherever they are heaviest and eventually it will get the entire colony. Just takes time to work its way through.

I don’t think he wants it to travel far beyond the perimeter, though, as the studio has a bunch of wildlife around it.

It gets tracked back on the ants body, there won’t really be any chemical spread out in the environment. You really want them to touch feelers with as many other ants as possible before dying and fipronil gives them a day or so to do that.

I mean, it is highly toxic to aquatic life, birds, and insects. You say that it won’t spread in the environment but chemicals like that are easily water-soluble and do spread out in waterways if you use large amount, even if you use it locally. That’s just diffusion and entropy for you. I agree that it will break down over time and it is more effective, but a pyrethrin insecticide is more safe for the environment as it’s derived from chrysanthemums, a natural plant. And it’s already doing a great job, it seems like. I find that the molecules that are already in the environment are less likely to cause significant effects to other wildlife, as they’ve had potentially millions of years of exposure, evolutionarily, to deal with a molecule the body recognizes. Whereas a synthetic that’s new and super effective will inevitably spread more than you intended, whether you use it responsibly or not. So will the permethrin, but like I said, really not as bad because it’s more specific to insects, it will break down in sunlight over shorter periods and it will not affect mammals in the same ways. Pyrethrin is synthetically produced, but only for convenience. We could extract chrysanthemums mums for it, but that would take forever. but it’s based on the natural chemicals produced in a chrysanthemum and is among the six that the plant produces to protect itself from insect attacks, so it’s really a better solution if it’s already working. I do know these ants are very persistent though. Whatever you gotta do in your job, I get it. I just wouldn’t be recommending it for a layman or homeowner who may spray too much. They have no idea what amount to use as a first timer, and everyone knows “more is better”. It’s mostly banned in the US for a good reason. People use it irresponsibly.

Pyrethrin is also highly toxic to aquatic life. Just because it occurs in nature doesn’t make it harmless or good.

Fipronil is not banned in the US. At high concentrations, like Taurus, it’s controlled in some states. That’s because you need to dilute Taurus something like 100:1, and if you use it straight yes that’s a problem. The stuff that ordinary consumers can buy is already diluted.

[Dramatized example…](https://youtu.be/aXP3C5Kg-7w?si=GFAEUxJymq71jKaW)

That was a fucking trip.

That was awesome 😉

Amazing

What a rollercoaster of emotions!

> [Fipronil is one of the main chemical causes blamed for the spread of colony collapse disorder among bees.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fipronil#Colony_collapse_disorder)

[Do you really think they care? ](https://www.google.com/search?q=average+revenue+from+Fipronil+sales&client=ms-android-verizon-us-rvc3&sca_esv=47b16ba36d203663&sxsrf=AE3TifNfSjmv9zAGucvAf7lST_XxUlI5RA%3A1753865136933&ei=sNuJaInjOJm1wN4P-on8eA&oq=average+revenue+from+Fipronil+sales&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIiNhdmVyYWdlIHJldmVudWUgZnJvbSBGaXByb25pbCBzYWxlczIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABSMwxUNENWO4pcAF4AZABAJgBsQGgAfcLqgEEMC4xMLgBA8gBAPgBAZgCC6ACpQzCAgoQABiwAxjWBBhHwgIEECMYJ8ICBRAhGKsCwgIFECEYnwWYAwCIBgGQBgiSBwQxLjEwoAelO7IHBDAuMTC4B5kMwgcHMS4yLjcuMcgHKg&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp) Particularly not China.

China committing environmental abuses? Say it ain’t so!

Among other things, indiscriminate usage of them contributed, yes. They rushed the chemicals to market before proper testing, as per usual. Applied correctly, they won’t encounter it. The problem is finding people who know what they’re doing while applying chemicals.

> The problem is finding people who know what they’re doing while applying chemicals. So probably not the person you just advised to use it then? Maybe include a disclaimer for proper usage when suggesting it.

That’s because farms blast it over entire crops from the sky. Treating an ant infestation in your home is not the cause of bee decline.

Neonicotinoids are banned in Europe due to links to honeybee colony collapse. If we kill the pollinators we’re all dead.

As a former pest control fellow, This man speaks truth! Also don’t respray home products over their work or it can make it useless.

Fipronil isn’t a neonic, it’s its own class

I have a problem with ghost ants infiltrating my kitchen. Advion bait seems to work for only a day or two then they come back. Have any advice for me?

I like Adivion because they keep the concentration and the actual amount of poison entering any area very low, since it only needs a minuscule amount to do its work. I would try a simple borax-sugar solution first. You have to reapply every day for a week because the moisture content evaporates unless it’s covered somehow. I would just put a drop on a water-resistant surface like the floor or a ceramic or plastic plate turned upside-down ( so they can climb easier ) and place it near their food source. It’s probably something on the ground or some kind of sugar crystals they’re eating if they’re not taking the adivion bait. The first good rule of bait is remove all the lower-hanging fruit first, as the ants have not much reason to switch to a new bait if they offer essentially the same thing. Think about this – ants love sugar. What’s more attractive, then- pure sugar? Or some weird gel stuff that is, by % weight, less concentrated than pure sugar (how can you get more concentrated than 100%?). The ants will subsist on your spilled food or sugars for quite some time before eating bait. Generally speaking, it’s hard for us to find something more evolutionarily exciting for an ant than pure crystallized sugar. They don’t care much for natural flavors, or i would imagine not. Maybe that’s Adivion’s next best product, gel bait with natural and artificial flavors added. Now in nerds gummy flavor! Anyways. The other option is that your neighbor has a ghost ant problem, is feeding them (unintentionally) and they then want to expand their empire and enter your space. In this case, it will be harder to eradicate them as they will keep feeding off a clean food source and will continue to have an established base of operations. In that case, just keep using the Adivion. You have to reapply that too if it gets too dry.

I make a borax sugar solution and then soak cotton balls in it. Stick the cotton balls to the side of my foundation near cracks, doors, windows, etc. I put them up right below the siding so they’re not visible and are protected from rain. They’ll easily last all season, and I get piles of dead ants not completely unlike this video. Now I’m only doing it every other year because it does such a good job of tamping down the colony that they’re still recovering the following year.

It’s also essentially harmless to everything else, barring bizzare circumstance. Nobody doesn’t love molten boron!

Not second guessing you at all. P-Rin worked wonders for us. Over saturation from 3 feet up down is the key and you have to flood every crevice. Time consuming also cost effective and biodegradable. Want to say we dumped over 100 gallons in foundation, siding channels, cracks in concrete, garden borders, on surface, faux brick frame, saturated the lawn 2 feet from foundation, etc. You have to go nuts. If you think it was to much you’re doing it wrong, you need 3 more. On top of that nematodes, protein and sugar baits, and slowly chicken bone away. Prevents reoccurring infestation. Couldn’t afford the anteater

100….gallons?

So you used 100 gallons of pyrethrin?

and chicken bones, if I read that right