Bittersweet Gardens
Fire Ant Cures and Fallacies

Grated orange and grapefruit peelings on the mound.

Sprinkle grits on the mound.  Ants are supposed to swell up and die after eating them.

Drench the mound with boiling water.

Carry a shovelful of ants from one mound to another and they will go to war and kill each other.

Sprinkle Copenhagen tobacco on top of the mound and worker ants will carry it below - then when the Queen comes up to spit, you stomp her to death!

Feed them beans, cover the mound with plastic and they will asphyxiate themselves!

A lot of the above methods are so bogus they’re funny but here is a legitimate fire ant cure:

Eddie's brother Robert Rhoades has discovered an environmentally friendly cure for fire ants that has been announced by Walter Reeves on his Georgia Gardener radio program. Testimonial that it REALLY WORKS are coming in.

Simply pour two cups of CLUB SODA (carbonated water) directly in the center of a fire ant mound. The carbon dioxide in the water is heavier than air and displaces the oxygen which suffocates the queen and the other ants. The whole colony will be dead within about two days.

Here's the good side: club soda leaves no poisonous residue, does not contaminate the ground water, and does not indiscriminately kill other insects. Each mound must be treated individually and a one liter bottle of club soda will kill 2 to 3 mounds.

Spread the word.