Sure enough, as predicted above, some group of idiots is protesting the killing of ants in the making of the video. Heard on the radio on the way to work.

I suspect this stuff would work: Rot Fix - System Three Resins, Inc.

It would be a bit more macabre, since the ants would not be incinerated. They would trapped in the epoxy like an ancient piece of amber.

Couple of minutes sitting within a few feet of a fire ant mound will change their minds PDQ.

I'm all for live and let live but around here we eradicate those things with extreme prejudice.

Great videos.

Might be too thick, did you see how fluid the albumin and concrete were?

That looks like a filler material.

I saw that too. They were discussing how the ants had separate chambers for gardens, living, waste, etc... And the heat from the waste chambers provided air circulation for the entire colony. All this from a stoopid ant.

There is a bayou that runs behind my house and there is literally a fire any hole every 15 or 20 ft of the path. I could make 100 of these in a summer afternoon if I wanted. I think I might try to make one in the spring. Mostly for the special joy I would get from frying those little guys.

I think maybe "pot metal" might be easier to deal with temperature wise

Rot Fix is very loose. Its meant to penetrate cracks in wood. Its the consistency of heavy cream.

Yeah, thanks. There is only one way to know for sure. I think I just bought myself a $300 science project for the summer. Rot fix ain't cheap.

Did you go to the website and see the price for that casting? Ebay has it at $4500!

My brother did it with lead in the '60s. Bullets - from our basement range (22 short) - melted down in an old cast iron frypan on the stove. He got some interesting ones.

Ian

get a bag of diatomaceous earth and put a bunch around the mounds, if your goal is to kill them. cheap, easy, safe, and deadly to ants.

that Alu-art is the highest and best purpose for fire-ants - hate those guys. Sucks to find them on a golf course in the south - ouch!!

little razor blades to ants and fleas-

fleas are like srimp for spiders

I learn about so much cool stuff here, thanks for sharing .

Getting bitten by one fire ant is acutely painful. BTDT.
Getting bitten by half a dozen fire ants is very painful. BTDT.
Getting bitten bitten by two dozen fire ants is agony and feels like being set on fire in the zone being bitten. BTDT.
Getting bitten by 100+ is often a trip to the hospital. Have not BTDT, but a kid I knew growing up did, and he was in the hospital for days. Fell backwards right into the mound...they really did a number on him.

The little bastards bite in unison using pheromone signals. Between the simulcast biting and the venom they inject, it really is an amazing new form of pain you have to experience to believe.

The surprise factor is the worst. You can be outdoors focusing on your golf game, yard work, tending the grill...whatever. And a couple dozen will fan out on your ankle and lower leg without you noticing, then give the signal to bite. Complete surprise.

The aluminum trick is a good one and I have a hard time feeling bad for them. Invasive and nasty creatures.

I used to pour boiling water into antholes. Can you kill off fire ant nests that way?

No, those little ****ers will find a stick, hollow it out and shoot the boiling water back at you before you finish emptying the bucket.

Your typical fire ant mound is like dealing with 50,000 miniature 6 legged Cyberdyne Systems T-800's.

We don't have fire ants, but we have red ants. They are bad but not as bad a fire ants, I would bet. I found an old plastic bottle of Ortho Malathion and have poured very dilute solutions from a watering can down a bunch of red ant colonies around here. Been pretty happy with the results, but I have to admit I haven't read up on Malathion's effects on the environment yet. The next day the colony has collapsed and the ants disappeared. Maybe that might work with fire ants.

When this topic came up on FB, I discovered that one of my friends was a welder and smelter. He pointed out that melting aluminum isn't that hard, but 1200F is REALLY hot. Basically, you need an enclosure for the fire that you can push air through, with the aluminum in a cast iron pot in the middle. Pushing the air is pretty straightforward: a hair dryer should provide enough forced air to make it work. The goal isn't insanity, it's just to get some additional air through the fire.

He also noted that you've got to have your whole smelting setup seriously portable -- you've got to set up basically at the ant nest in question, because the aluminum cools really fast.

If something like that can go for $4500 on eBay, I'll start hunting for ant mounds this spring. That's a serious bonus check, in my world.

Dan