Does anyone have a remedy---formula--- or poison to kill these foliage destroying ants?

It's been discussed a couple of times. I'm fighting them daily. Someone on here used over-n-out and had success. But for that to work you have to locate the nest. I live on nine acres and think I located on nest. I used the over-n-out and have seen no activity at that nest. However, i still have a problem with them. So i use a three fold method. I put seven dust every three days on my plants and trees I don't want them to get. I actively search for their trails and temporary holes they use to carry the foliage to the home nest and spray the trail and hole with pesticide, killing as many of the *******s as I can. It's like bombing the ho chi mihn trail. I also put down ant out around the perimeter of my house. I have noticed fewer of them but they are relentless. I have not been able to locate a second nest, so, I don't know where these are coming from. Also, it will get harder when the weather warms because they move to nocturnal operations. During the cool months they work during the day and I've had pretty good success putting a stop to the raping and pillaging of my plants. If you find something that works better, please, share.

I've not heard of over-n-out. Is that the name of the product?

Yes. It says its for fire ants but it worked on them. You have to wet it, which, is kind of a pain in the butt.

Ask the Agronomist(M) says ...

I have ***heard*** (ahem!) that this method works great, but is certainly not on any label:

Find as many of the entry/exit holes as possible and cover them up, leaving the most active one (hopefully one that is centrally located in the colony). Take a stick and wallow out the entry hole slightly and wet the area down. Next get a can of indoor insect fogger, set it off, and turn it upside down on the newly enlarged hole. Use the moist dirt around the hole to prop up the can and seal the mist off. In the mean time, watch for fog coming out of undiscovered holes and cover them up. Repeat with another can.

Occasionally you can get lucky and get a steel post or rebar and poke around in the center of the colony area to find the central chamber. If you can do this, this is the queen mother of spots to fog.

This is the best method I have found ... er ... I mean heard of to get the bastages.

B-1's method is a little dangerous but would work.

Nice. I'm going to try that. Thanks.

Instead of fogging and contaminating your soil....you might want to look into using Wintergreen and Cinnamon mixed into sawdust to cover the mounds. The oils distrupt the ants ability to communicate using pheromones.

Fill a 5-gallon bucket with sawdust and mix in 5 to 10 oz of essential oils. (use gloves, cinnamon can cause skin burns) Cover mounds. The effectiveness oils will dissipate after a couple days you might have to repeat process in a couple days if you are using water based essential oils.

It works for fire ants...not sure about leaf cutters.

Here ya go..

16 oz Grape Nut Flakes
4 oz water
8 table spoons Orthene 75 SP
1 1gal zip lok bag

put ingredients in bag and shake

one batch per colony

do not pour into ant mound holes

This has worked the best for myself and my customers

OH and it is legal

The only thing worse than a poor loser is a poor winner.

Those methods will not work on leaf cutters. They do not eat the things that fire ants or other ants eat. They use the leaves they harvest to grow a fungus that is their only source of food. This why amdro or other bait based poisons don't work. Their nests/mounds are also huge compared to fire ants and they can be located far away from where they are harvesting. So to stop them you have to find the main mound and fumagate it.

You need an old coffee can, dry oatmeal, a fungicide poison (powder) put together and mix. Sprinkle on trail or around mound if you know where it is. They can be a long ways off. Like what was said before they eat the fungus that grows from the harvest. Killing their food source will kill them or at least get them to leave. Caution of the smell. Stinks like hell.

Southernboy: what are some names of fungicides you recommend, and do you need to wet the mixture? Thanks.

Grape nuts are the key.

I think it's called asophate 75%. I put it dry. They love it. I watched several hundred take that stuff down thd hole. By the way I had time, a lawn chair and a 12 pk. Plus I was really pissed at what was happening to my yard so I was very determined. They will cut u down to sticks in a matter of overnight.

Here's some more stuff I found while searching the internet.

Subject: LEAFCUTTER ANTS

I have not had any success with the products that are currently being sold for killing Cut Ants. In desperation I called Red River Products to order some Volcano which I had used previously and which killed two large mounds very effectively. The gentleman at Red River Products returned my call and informed me that the company that manufactured Volcano was bought out and that there was not enough demand for Volcano, consequently no more Volcano. HELP, what do we do now?

===========================================

ANSWER:

There’s apparently a long, sad story about the loss of Volcano, but I won’t try to recount it. Right now the best options are: (1) Grant’s Kill Ants – not highly effective, but does work about 30% of time, according to Texas Forest Service. (2) New Ambrand’s version of same bait, to be called Ant Block Home Perimeter. Not sure who’s going to sell this. Effectiveness, I’m guessing will be about the same as Grant’s. (3) One of the insecticide dusts registered for control of ant mounds (Orthene (acephate), Bayer Advanced Lawn Fire Ant Killer Ready to Use Dust (cyfluthrin), or deltamethrin dust (Terro Brand)). Dusts can work if blown into multiple nest entrances. I recommend a garden duster capable of blowing it into the nest. Be careful about using Orthene (acephate) in the vicinity of a home, however, because of it’s potential for causing a stink. There is a new product that some folks hope will reach the market this spring. It will be called BES-100. It’s an orange-pulp based bait, and it is supposed to be a little better than Volcano. I don’t know whether the label will include urban landscapes or not. Active ingredient is fipronil. Apparently the holdup is at the EPA because of concerns about the environmental fate of fipronil. Lastly, the most effective approach may be to simply protect your sensitive plants with a permethrin spray. Not a perfect solution, and it won’t get rid of the ants, but it does confer some protection on valuable plants. I hope this helps. Michael Merchant, PhD, BCE; Urban Entomologist; Texas Cooperative Extension

For another technique of cutant control, see:
http://www.plantanswers.com/breakout/qa1981.html

Where are you finding leaf-cutter ants? I lived in a little village in Peru for a while and those suckers made highways through the jungle. I've never heard of them being in the U.S. We would pour a little bit of gasoline in the holes and woft the fumes in and then lite match. You will hear popping noises all around you as the methane burned. Fun stuff.

Well, I don't know if it's the same leaf cutters found in South America. These are actually called the Texas Leaf Cutter Ant. They like sandy soils,and I live in La Vernia (east of San Antonio), which, is very sandy. I grew in Austin/Buda and never saw one or heard of them until I moved down here.

I live in East Texas and we have had cutter ants a lot longer than fire ants. The most effective control is Bromide gas, but they made it harder and harder to get and now it is not readily available. The grapenut flakes are the key to my remedy and the acephate is an insecticide not a fungicide. The Amdro Block is labeled but it is the same product as regular Amdro and has not been very effective. The grapenut/orthene mix is reletively inexpensive and just like the old alka selzer commercial..."Try it You'll like it"

The only thing worse than a poor loser is a poor winner.

You are right it is a pesticide. I can't remember what it is I used. It's been to long. I would have to go back to the farm store and look. I know it has a real bad smell. And it worked for me.

I've seen leaf cutters west of Easterwood on several pieces of property.

We have leaf cutter ants and we are on the southern edge of the Hill Country.

They do like sandy soil better but they live in the limestone hills too.

Sometimes it will take a couple of hours to track them from your yard to their "real" home over a quarter mile away. In the summertime you can do it at night with a headlight and maybe a beer.

Alright i'm going to try savagesix's concoction next. Is was acephate (SP?) you used, southernboy. I used some today and it smells like cheese that's gone bad.

Thanks guys for all the suggestions----will give these a try

Check back in and let us know your results. I'll do the same.

Will do

Yamuccado, you sure they are leaf cutter and not texas red ants?

I have sprayed Tempo on fire ant mounds with almost 100% kill. So just spray on paths of leaf cutting ants and they will take the poison on their feet to the queen. It needs to be dry for 2-3 days for this to work.

Found this thread as I was searching for cutter ant recipes on the internet. I looked for an hour at various sites - who would have known the answer would have been right here on TexAgs. For what it's worth, I called the Ag Extension Office and they gave me the exact same recipe as as savagesix83 provided. Will let you know if it works.

These little suckers have been frustrating to say the least. I did get a great laugh reading these posts. Good to know I'm not the only one who has been thinking of them as little guerilla freedom fighters.

TRY THIS:
So far, I have been 100% effective at killing leaf cutter ants by doing the following:
1. Buy Sevins dust.
2. When you see the leaf cutter ants, dust as many ants as possible with the Sevin dust, especially those carrying food. You don’t have to drown the ants in dust just get some on them.
3. DO NOT dust the hole. DO NOT worry about dusting the trail (it doesn’t appear to matter to the ants). GET IT ON THE ANTS.
4. The ants who are deployed carry the dust into the hole which, so far, appears to destroy the whole colony.

Ant activity appears to terminate within 12 hours.

Go to the Tractor Supply horse section. Buy a quart of fly spray concentrate (10% pemetherin/pyrethroid ) in the Horse Section, try your best not to pour the entire bottle into the nest because the EPA says its bad.

Pyrethrum solution should kill them pretty much on contact. I know when I use 2 ounces per gallon and pour on fire ants the mound is dead within 2 min.

i use Permethrin II. mix it strong and spray the trail and then pour allot down the nest entrance. you may need to treat the nest a couple of times as they move but if your persistant and treat the nest as soon as you see it youll eventually run them off for the season...
i also use it to spray the yard and plants... its great for fleas and almost any other yard pests you may have as well. you can get a qrt of concentrate from your local feed store for around $20.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/414gJ19jNsL._SX425_.jpg

Demon WP

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Demon WP

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How do you apply this?