Ted,
I recommended to Julia that she try food grade diatomaceous earth: " in your
home you can use diatomaceous earth to kill ants among other insects. It's not
toxic to humans or pets, but it is to things like ants, weevils (they use it in
grain silos), fleas, silverfish, etc. It abrades the carapace and they "bleed"
to death. I use it at my doors and window sills along with ground cinnamon. I
also stir up ant hills and cover them with DE. Ants won't cross cinnamon and
they just flip over in DE turn their legs up to the sky and get little Xs in
their eyes." If anyone else is interested, I can recommend a website.
Louise
Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 06:35:27 -0500
From: t.b.sam...@gmail.com
To: texascavers@texascavers.com
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] New Invasvive Species - Raspberry Ants / aka Tawny
Ants
"Evil" pesticide? "Toxic" is a bit more science-driven.
On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 10:33 PM, Julia Germany <germa...@aol.com> wrote:
At last weekend's TCMA meeting, Matt Turner gave a very interesting report
about the rapid spread of the Tawny Ant, formerly known as the Raspberry Ant,
after the man who identified them. Had Matt not previously asked me to "like"
the Tawny Ant FB page, I would not have known what he was talking about and why
cavers should be concerned. He has been monitoring them inside and outside of
Whirlpool Cave (Austin) as well as other caves in the area for a long time, and
they are starting to have serious effects on the caves and the crickets. The
current solution is an evil pesticide that will only cause more problems for
caves.
While watching the 10:00 pm Houston ABC local news tonight, they did a story
about these invasive ants. It's worth the few minutes the story lasts to watch
and learn more:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/consumer&id=9215910
For even more info, contact Matt Turner. Sorry, I don't have his email address.
julia germany - Houston home owner who will vigilantly be on the look out for
these invasive ants in my potted plants, and around my yard!
