Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Killing Fire Ants

Killing fire ants
Fire ants are very aggressive and repeatedly sting anything that disturbs them. The sting causes intense burning and itch which typically subsides within an hour. In the next 2 hours, a swelling occurs at the site of the sting. A white abscess comes out in a day or so.
On exceptional occasions, anaphylaxis, or a generalized, systemic allergic reaction to the fire ant stings, can occur. This usually occurs in persons who have been previously stung by fire ants. Symptoms include flushing, swelling of the face, eyes or throat, nausea, severe sweating. 
Fire ants enter wood through cracks, crevices, or between flooring and dig tunnels to form living quarters. Especially vulnerable are porches, roofing, and areas near kitchens and bathrooms where water from leakage may be trapped or absorbed by wood.
The road to how to kill fire ants: There are quite a few methods on how to kill fire ants; some take a few hours, others a few weeks or months. While dealing with fire ants you have to be very patient. And be sure you treat or remove all the mounds because even if you miss out on one mound, you will lose the war
Firstly take an inspection around the house; it is likely you will get a dirt mound up against the foundation of the house. The next thing is that if you have children playing in the yard and facing problems with fire ants, identify the place and flag it. Now you are prepared to fight fire ants.
In the following paragraphs you will get some suggestions about the methods to control fire ants.
Killing fire ants with Dry Ice
Take a 3' piece of 5/8" re-bar. With it make a hole to the bottom of the mound. Insert a piece of dry ice into the hole and push it to the bottom with the re-bar. The queen will be killed, along with most of the ants. If the queen dies, the ants die too. 
Killing fire ants with Boiling Water
Pouring boiling water on a colony is a non-chemical solution to get rid of fire ants. But if it does not kill the queen, it will not eliminate the colony.
To use boiling water as a method, start with a sunny, cool day when the ants are most active. For more information on how to kill fire ants with water click here

Killing fire ants with Dry Ice

Take a 3' piece of 5/8" re-bar. With it make a hole to the bottom of the mound. Insert a piece of dry ice into the hole and push it to the bottom with the re-bar. The queen will be killed, along with most of the ants. If the queen dies, the ants die too.

Killing fire ants with Boiling Water

Pouring boiling water on a colony is a non-chemical solution to get rid of fire ants. But if it does not kill the queen, it will not eliminate the colony.
To use boiling water as a method, start with a sunny, cool day when the ants are most active. Pour about 3 gallons (US) of truly boiling water slowly over the mound. Some fire ants can survive up to some days underwater, so the key word here is boiling. The fire ants die from being scorched, not drowned. .

Remove Their Scent Trails

Just before a rain, or in the early evening before the ants have gone underground for the night, dig up and scatter them. Fling them as far as you can, DOWNWIND. Their scent trails will be washed out by the rain or dew. Most of them will not find their way back. This may need to be repeated several times.

Killing fire ants by letting them Fight It out Themselves

 Fire ants from different colonies do not get along well. You can try putting this to your advantage by mixing up fire ants from different mounds. Colonies can be eliminated, or at least, weakened, using this method. It should work, as long as the area you live in does not have multi-queen colonies. Territorial and

Using a shovel to kill fire ants, take a full from mound one and set it aside. Take a shovel full from mound two and place it where you removed the ants from mound one. Then take the ants you put aside and put them into mound two. If you have three colonies, you can do a three way mix. Watch what happens. You should see piles of dead ants in a few days
Remember these methods for killing fire ants can be tricky, so if your in doubt please call a professional exterminator.
John

Monday, September 1, 2008

Google Adsense Policy

Adsense in March of 2009. The new changes effect how Google collects information on your surfing habits using third party advertising vendors who leave cookies on your browsers - notably the Doubleclick DART Cookie.

The basic changes to Adsense revolve around the addition of Interest Based Advertising as opposed to the previous Placement Targeted Advertising. You can visit Google for a description of what Interest Based Advertising entails here.

Your updated Privacy Policy should inform your users about the use of third party cookies on your sites and provide them with information regarding their opt out options should they wish to not have cookies placed on their browsers. See Opt Out of Behavioral Advertising

As an Adsense publisher you also have the option not to use Internet Based Advertising and may Opt out by following the instructions posted in Google Adsense Help. I do not recommend that you opt out but the choice is yours. These changes should help increase your CTR and CPC in the long run as you will become less susceptable to being smart priced. (ie. Conversions should increase as users are presented more advertisements based on their interests)

Saturday, August 30, 2008

How To Get Rid of Carpenter Ants

Getting Rid Of Carpenter Ants
Knowing how to get rid of carpenter ants as a pest is a difficult thing to do. But can be done with a little patience and work. As we continue to grow as a society the more we build with wood. The more wood structures the greater the attraction  for many insects, and one of these insects is the carpenter ants.

This means we need to be observant to the insects that are attracted to wood Even though carpenter ants do not eat wood as a food source, it does mean they can do damage by pinching and chewing if left unattended.

The large black and sometimes red and black depending what part of the country they are in is known as the carpenter ant. Carpenter ants are one of the largest ants we have in the United States. Carpenter ants is one of the most unique ants of all ants. Knowing how to get rid of carpenter ants is to know their characteristics.

Characteristics include:
  • Scent trails which may be hundreds of feet in length
  • You can expect to see only a few ants on this trail at any given moment
  • The mostly move around in the latter part of the day and into the night. Chewing on wood structures and looking for voids for nesting.
  • They have unique ability to identify leaky, damp wood and voids. 
  • They are very sensitive and have the ability to avoid chemically treated areas and find new ways or entries into a structure.
 
Carpenter Ants become a problem when they forage into your home.  First you see one or two and then all of a sudden there are literately hundreds. When you spot one or two this is the time to start thinking about what kind of problem you might have.

The fact that you see them means there is a nest or a scent trail coming into your home or structure. Another thing to look for is what they call frass, (frass is droppings,) wings, body parts all piled together. You could also see winged carpenter ants.

The winged ants are known as swarmer's or reproductive’s, reproductive’s are the ones looking to leave the nest and start a new colony. The swarm time can be almost any time but usually around spring time. If you find these inside the home there is a good chance they are located inside the structure.

The more information you can gather the better chance you will be able to determine the method of treatment in knowing how to get rid of carpenter ants. The worst thing you can do is grab a bottle of raid and start spraying. The only time this will work is if you know where the nest is, then you can spray the nest.

Look around and see if you can follow a trail, or look under things old bricks outside, under the insulation, even in old stored papers, phone books, inside rubber hoses. When you find the nest you can treat the nest directly by spraying. With fire ants you can usually see the nest and it is easy to treat.

I think the first thing I would do is check and see if you have an exterminator or use an exterminating company.
Tips to Get Rid Of Carpenter Ants
  •  Remember most of the time carpenter ants come out in the late evening or dark. Use a flashlight, follow the trails.  They love to nest near moist wood, poorly sealed windows, leaking roof or eves.
  • Finding the hidden nests is the most difficult thing to do, so when you find it destroy it immediately. That is exactly what the exterminator will try and do. Drill a number of very small holes into the wall. Put boric acid into the holes or you can check with local DIY for an aerosol (recommended). Drill and treat at least three feet on either side of the suspected nest. Above and below window sills are likely places.
  •  Clean your floors, Cleanliness is not necessarily that important but won’t hurt, what is important is to thoroughly fix leaky faucets that adds fuel to rotting wood and remove any clutter that creates a nesting area for the ants.
  •  You can use a pesticide that will help place a barrier for the carpenter ants. Most pesticides are pretty safe to use, make sure to keep it out of reach of children and pets. Please keep all chemical out of reach of children and pets, and Pay close attention to the label.
  •  You can use carpenter ant bait, which is proven to kill the nest and even lasts all year long.
  •  My advise is, if you can afford it is to hire professional exterminator. They are good on knowing how to get rid of carpenter ants.
Knowing how to get rid of Carpenter ants or how to kill carpenter ants is one of the most difficult insects to control because they are very good at hiding their nest. And for that reason they can be hard to get rid of even for the exterminator. So know your ants.


 
 


Wednesday, July 16, 2008

How To Kill Ants

How to kill ants? There are many ways to kill ants, I will tell you a simple way if your strapped for cash and need instant relief. This article will deal with Fire ants. Fire ants will actually do a lot of bodily harm. Some people have an allergic reaction to the bite of the fire ant and could even die from it. Even if you’re not allergic to the bite of the fire ant you can suffer a burning bite, and it hurts.
Identify
First thing, if the fire ant is in the home. Then do an inspection; most likely you will find a dirt mound up against the foundation of the house. When you find this mound just step back and do not disturb. The next thing is if you are having a problem with fire ants in the yard where the children play, then identify where these ants are by placing a flag or something that will let you know where they are.
Some times the ant beds are not all that visible to the eye. You may have to do some searching, but it will be well worth it. Once you have located the ant nest or mound and flagged it. Then the next step is to get ready to exterminate them.
Treatment on how to kill ants
First find a good size container such as a metal pot (best), this pot should be able to hold about one half to one gallon of water and have a handle on it. Fill with water and place on stove burner and bring to a boil. You will need to make sure there are no small children around and you will need to be very very careful. You do not want to burn your self. Please use extreme caution.

Making sure the water goes into the nest, the water will travel down in the tunnels and what doesn't get wet the steam will do the rest. Just repeat for all the ant nests. Now you know how to kill ants, especially fire ants. This do it your self method has worked for me time and time again.
Remember when trying to kill any kind of pest or exterminating any pest such as roaches, fleas, bedbugs and doing it you’re self. Please be safe.
USE EXTREME CAUTION

Sunday, July 6, 2008

The Facts About Ants

Facts about ants
One of the facts about ants is that they are social insects that live in large colonies or groups. Some colonies consist of millions and millions of ants. Don’t think that ants are not able to communicate with each other, they can. Among other things they can give directions (to where the food is) and alarm each other when there is cause. Ants are clean and tidy insects. Some worker ants are given the job of cleaning out the nest and taking the garbage and putting it outside in a special rubbish dump!
Another fact about ants is that they are of extreme importance in the insect world. They have complex and often obligatory relationships with the plant and insect kingdom, which depend on the ants for their well being.
Ants are most numerous in warm climate regions, but they live almost everywhere on land except for extremely cold locations. Ants have many different ways of life. Ants are often found on plants in and around homes. Ants and aphids work hand and hand, many assume the ants are eating the aphids; instead, the ants are actually tending the aphids, protecting them from predators.
Another fact about ants is that individual ants will not survive outside their colony for very long, but if their escape route is not sealed the ants may establish a food route back into the colony. It is not uncommon to find any ant willing to give his life for the good of the colony.
As we go along here you will learn about ants.
  • How to get rid of ants
  • How to kill ants
  • Home remedies to get rid of ants
  • Ant baits

More facts about ants is that they are or always available for your picnics, outings and food on the floor. It may seem like ants are hard to control but they are not. Some types of ants like the pharaoh ant, and the thief ant, which is also known as sugar ants is one of the harder ants to control. The carpenter ant is also very hard to control. Know this, Ants are easier to control when the colony is small and localized.



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  • Weekly Newsletter - 10/06/08 - In this set of lessons, the children move from collecting and sorting facts about ants to writing story problems using some of the information they’ve gained. The activities in this unit give students a chance to consolidate and extend ...

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