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Side note...

@phideaux Fyi… this is the fireant map. Green means fireants… Weather wise this is also the hard freeze line. The white area of map gets a hard freeze every winter. We also know that the northern 60-80 miles of the green area sometimes gets a hard freeze, just not every year.

There real dividing line is the TN river across N Alabama. If you drew an east/west line through Huntsville… south of that line there is almost never a hard freeze, fire ants and brown recluse spiders flourish. They live north of that line but not nearly in the numbers further south.

Fire ants sm.jpg
 
Side note...

@phideaux Fyi… this is the fireant map. Green means fireants… Weather wise this is also the hard freeze line. The white area of map gets a hard freeze every winter. We also know that the northern 60-80 miles of the green area sometimes gets a hard freeze, just not every year.

There real dividing line is the TN river across N Alabama. If you drew an east/west line through Huntsville… south of that line there is almost never a hard freeze, fire ants and brown recluse spiders flourish. They live north of that line but not nearly in the numbers further south.

View attachment 59326

I've never seen fire ants, very rare to see brown recluse.

You can keep them .

Jim
 
I've never seen fire ants, very rare to see brown recluse.

You can keep them .

Jim
We try drowning them every year. It don't work :(:
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Maybe our historic low temps this year will knock a dent in them?
...yeah, right
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Sunday we got light snow all day long (it was not supposed to snow at all) then it dumped another 8 inches overnight. So here we sit with 24 inches on the ground with more coming today. That's not bad enough to even complain about but the weather folks are predicting freezing rain for tomorrow and that will turn this into a frozen nightmare. As long as we have gaswe will be fine. The shop and garage will stay above freezing for a couple of days without power - it's all about the insulation I installed when I built them - and by Wednesday it is supposed to begin warming into the mid 40's.
 
Fire ants, I know nothing about them. What I do know about insects in general is that they don't tolerate heat above 180F, boric acid kills them, Chlorine gas kills them, and diatomaceous earth kills most small insects.
The one I would try first would be to put a box around their nest (cardboard will be fine) put a plastic bucket inside the box half full of liquid bleach and add liquid ammonia until it begins to fume. Place a lid on the box and walk away - into the wind. (note: this makes chlorine and mustard gas. It can kill any animal that breathes it!)
 
It’s rained another inch in the last 2 hours. Ice is starting to form in the tree tops. I guess I’m not going to skate on this one. The last hope is not losing power.

@Cabin Fever Your wife is right. I pronounce them "fahraints"... darn auto correct! I litterally have millions of ants per acre in my pastures. Every dot you see in the 2nd photo are fire ant beds.

ice (4) sm.JPG


Ants sm 002.jpg
 
Ummm... Napalm comes to mind!:eek::thumbs::brewing:😈
 
The one I would try first would be to put a box around their nest

An individual ant bed isn't an issue. Thousands of beds and millions of ants per acre is the issue. Plus, pastures have livestock grazing, sometimes numbering in the hundreds in large fields.

Mustard gas is not a rational solution.
 
I just saw the picture of his field, I agree. The animals will stay away from burning napalm. I can see why they are so hard to deal with.
 
Snowing and 28* here this morning. Got maybe 1-1/2 or 2" of fluffy snow on the ground overnight. Snow is supposed to end soon and then get more in a day or two. I doubt any of it will amount to much moisture.
Supposed to stay below freezing for a few days. Friday it is supposed to warm up again.
I hope this is the last gasp of winter.

We got 8" yesterday. Not nearly as cold as predicted.
 
I'm still on the boundary of the storm. About 3pm a small blast of warm air came up from the gulf. It melted all the ice from tree limbs that had already formed. Amazing, haven't seen anything like that before.

Temps are dropping again, now I'm getting a fine snow. Supposed to drop to 10 degrees sometime before daylight.
 
I'm still on the boundary of the storm. About 3pm a small blast of warm air came up from the gulf. It melted all the ice from tree limbs that had already formed. Amazing, haven't seen anything like that before.

Temps are dropping again, now I'm getting a fine snow. Supposed to drop to 10 degrees sometime before daylight.
Just stepped outside to find a good coating of ice on the Jeep.

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We still have another 10 hours of freezing rain coming.

Ben
 
Sitting here in S. W. Oregon, thanking God for moving our of the panhandle of Texas, watched the weather news and almost all of Texas is catching really bad weather, also saw a video of a guy backing out of his driveway in Georgia, when he got out on the street his truck/suv slid sideways down the street. To our north, Washington is supposedly getting it's worst snow storm in 50 years, Portland is getting snow and some nearby areas are getting silver thaw, that causes trees and powerlines to break and fall, also heard that Texas has 2 million people without power, glad to be living in paradise, thank you God.
 
Well they didn't miss the prediction this time. We still have single digit temps, and got between 5"-10" of snow. We are riding this one out inside. It is even cold to go near the windows. Not supposed to warm up until Friday. Who would have thought you would be happy to see 40 degree temps?
 
The one thing that I noticed in all the snow photos we've received from friends and family in Texas is that no one parks their cars in a garage (even though they have one). In the photos, the streets and driveways are lined with snow-covered or ice-covered cars. They all had plenty of warning of what was about to happen, so why not park the car in the garage?
 
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The one thing that I noticed in all the snow photos we've received from friends and family in Texas is that no one parks their cars in a garage (even though they have one). In the photos, the streets and driveways are lined with snow-covered or ice-covered cars. They all had plenty of warning of what was about to happen, so why not park the car in the garage?
I’ll bet their garages are like my basement..... stuff.
 
Today is sunny and 41 so far. Western and southern counties got hit hard by the ice yesterday and power is out and big damage. We missed a bullet this time.

Right now NWS is calling for our area to be getting 8-12 inches of snow. According to their map it starts wednesday through friday. Thats a change. It was just thursday into friday.
Hubby's been working extra hours in case he stays home thursday and friday

Looking ahead to next week its supposed to be 40 -50 degrees

Anybody notice how if you go out in the early morning the birds are just singing and courting like crazy. Its starting the get loud here in the mornings lol In the peak of courting time it is so loud you can't hear someone speaking.
 

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