[basjoos]

I heard about a variation on the boiling water method used by a guy at a foundry to get rid of mounds near his foundry. He would pour molten bronze onto a fire ant mound, where the bronze would fill the galleries in the mound, then when he would wash away the sand and end up with an intricate abstract sculpture.

As far as myself, I control fire ants on my property, sans pesticides, by going around on sunny winter afternoons when the temps are in the 50's and it is expected to freeze that night. At this time the entire colony will be clustered inside the upper southwest portion of the mound enjoying the warmth of the late afternoon sun. I'll take a shovel and scatter the mound downwind as far as I can throw them. Unlike many of our native ants that can tolerate below freezing temps, fire ants are killed by below freezing temps (the entire colony evacuates underground below the frost line as soon as the mound falls into shadow when the sun sets), so any ants that can't get back underground by nightfall are killed by the frost. If you time it right, you can get rid of 95% of the colony with 20 seconds of shovel work. If you do it too early, some of the ants can find their way back to the nest before the sun sets, if you do it too late, part of the colony will already have evacuated down deep underground and out of reach unless you want to start digging a hole to reach them. This method has been very effective for controlling fire ants in my pastures.