Model Railroading > Livin’Large with fire ants

We have a live steam meet this week at the track I help build/maintain in East Texas.

Friday I went out to blow pine needles off the track, lube switches, and treat fire ant mounds.

I think I'm going to need something more powerful than Amdro.

 

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Oh yeah.  I lived in Friendswood TX for a while and remember those fire ants well!

 

A good time to consider RC aircraft, or maybe macrame...
SR

It's THEM!

Good luck with clearing out those mounds, that's nasty work.

Even though I now live in CA, just the words "fire ants" strike fear in my heart from my years in Houston and Dallas.
I've had two significant run-ins with them, and those insects are pure evil.

Well, I'm hoping you don't have a problem with dung beetles....

I'm from Calif as well, and have no experience with these ants.  So is the mound shown, the real thing??  

This old school but a 50/50 mixture of gasoline and mustard. Don't know why it works, it just does.

Curt Wrote:
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> I'm from Calif as well, and have no experience
> with these ants.  So is the mound shown, the real
> thing??  

Yes it is the real deal, after 3" + rainfall the day before and
there were others, not on the track, that were much bigger than this one.

I tangled with them a few times with the American Freedom Train. When the train moved, all 10 display cars were individually locked and secured. There were covers that went over each end door to keep them dry and clean en route (the foot plates and diaphragms were removed and were placed inside each car.
Anyway, these covers were part of my job during setting up and tearing down the train. When I pulled them off I then slid them inside the gauge, under the rear truck of that car. Well, when it came time to go, always late at night, I would go crawling under the car in the dark to drag out the diaphragm cover- something that could stir up those %€#¥%!!ing ants in the South- Yeow!!!
SR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/22 08:53 by BoilingMan.

During high water events (we used to call them washouts) all of God's creatures seek high ground, which is often the railway embankment leading to bridges over the high water.
As you walked along the tracks toward the trouble, you would watch for possoms, deer, snakes etc. but if you stopped walking and stood still a few moments your legs would start to feel warm.
By then it is too late: the little buggers were climbing up inside your pant legs.  Fire ant bites start with a heat sensation, followed by a sharp pain and then 2-3 weeks of itchy, pus-filled blisters.
If you hate them as I do, it is tempting to knock over their mounds, but they come out with a severe attitude and swarm the area looking for the threat.  Run away if you disturb an active mound.
The only sure way to avoid them is to move to where the ground freezes each winter.
 

MP4093 Wrote:
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> It's THEM!

One of my favorite movies.
Bill Pyper
 

Great subject! The Late Bruce Petty had THEM on his Layout. A classic movie!
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,2264387,2264763#2264763

RailsTiesBallast experience is similar to mine. It was almost always wet in south Texas. Mounds were forever popping up here and there - and quickly. Vigilance was the only real solution. And get away as quikly as possible when you see them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/22 10:40 by King_Coal.

Flame thrower?

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
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> Flame thrower?

What's the old saying..."Fight Fire, with Fire!!"

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
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> Flame thrower?

Yep, a can of cheap hairspray and a Bic lighter. 

Guinea Hens.  They are the best insectivores ever. And they scale nicely with the large scale equipment.  Kinda like Jurassic Park meets the Flintstones.   (And quite tasty, too, at the end of the season). 

Hadn't thought about about fire ants in a long time. Here in upstate NY, the brutal weather is our friend. 

King_Coal Wrote:
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> get away
> as quikly as possible when you see them.

How fast are they? You could slowly stroll away from any colony of the harmless black ants here on the Pacific coast and easily outpace them.

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
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> Flame thrower?

I've had good results just with the insecticide which you sprinkle on the mound. I guess the queen gets fed the stuff and dies, and the the colony goes to hell.