Toni, the ants are usually crowded inside the nests but "pour out" if the nest's disturbed in any way. It's a good trick to always be in the lead when hiking here. The first person to brush past a nest gets them out and the next person brushing past gets covered in them. It's funny watching someone desperately trying to get a backpack off along with clothing to get rid of the ants. I've provided that sort of "amusement" many times for my walking companions, as they have for me. No one really takes it seriously, apart from the ants. I don't keep any plants indoors at home, they stay out all year. But no matter how much you try, there's always all sorts of bugs and spiders getting into the house, they don't wait for transportation by pot plants. A lot of spiders live in the soil, some near the surface but others burrow deeper. Generally I don't worry about them, I'm more interested in what they are rather than where they are. Over the years I've found spiders, scorpions and centipedes in my bed, but I just evict them. They can go buy their own bed, LOL. Horti, that's interesting about the Harvester Butterfly. Butterflies aren't usually associated with being carnivores, but yet there are are dining quietly away. What happens when one visitor to the garden meets another visitor to the garden?

The ones who are "cringing" at polluting the earth with pesticides......you must be from California. I promise you the earth will not fall off its axis nor will it cause you another quake if you take the ants out with a chemical. You allow the government to pollute millions with a flu vaccine that contains harmful ingredients. You probably are first in line to get it. Your government produces radioactive materials and your worried about a chemical killing an aggravating pest. Your oceans are polluted with gas, oil, fecal matter dumped from heads on boats. Yet dont spray a chemical for ants? I'm so sick of tree hugger mentality. Show me action instead of reaction "words" to problems. How about you get out and plant trees to replenish what loggers have cut to build your table, couch, chair, doors, and house. Tell the gov to stop polluting your earth. OR ACCEPT THE FACT THAT THIS IS LIFE.we are the top of the food chain as long as we use materials that God gave us the intelligence to produce. I will never support your beliefs as long as you are the type of people who tell others ...you can't put a barrel to catch rainwater coming off your roof to be used as you wish! GOD MADE THAT WATER! I understand that aquifers need to be replenished. But does the rainwater caught by the few actually hurt the water supply? It's a 55 gallon barrel. And it doesn't catch 1/3 of that after a rain. So spray for your ants, put out granules to kill or run those pesky ants, termites,roaches,spiders,Grubbs,beetles,etc to your neighbors yards, who use natural deterrents(vinegar and water). Sorry I'm so harsh but by gosh sometimes you fight fire with fire. Death to ants...lol

The people at your Texas A & M research have done the best work on controlling Fire Ants so contacting them to ask how to do that is the best thing you can do. Here is a link that might be useful: About Fire Ants

Jancol, Certainly try that out. Our place is wall to wall green ants. One product I have found that does work and it is a Bayer pressure pack with a long tube to shove down into the ant nest. On the humourous side your remedy is like using a certain horse wormer to get rid of flies. The flies land on the manure and the worming medicine kills the flies within a minute or so. Imagine using piles of manure around the BBQ to keep the flies away. LOL Doug.