Well Shuts Off-ants

I love the South - you are going to love this - my home is a fixer upper- I had new well parts installed - everything runs fine and then in the middle of living life the water shuts off....After a week of on and off - Always on by midnight always off by 8 am....I just knew I needed a new well dug because of lack of water After calling the "Well Guy" and sweating his possible answer - come to find out - its ANTS ...they somehow interrupt the electrical operations of my pump.....Ok, someone has to know how to handle this situation - I use ant killer around the base of the pump in and out and of course every time it rains I have to replace it.....Is there anything else that I can do.....Thanks from New to the South.

Under the Landscaping forum on this board there is a thread on killing ants. Take a look there. There is one that I posted with a link to a Texas A&M site on killing fire ants.

Get the most powerful and persistent killer that you can (often available on line at a better price if you want a lot of it) and lay in a supply so you will have it when you need it. In the south you must be prepared to deal with ants and lots of other things that have four, six, or eight legs.

Living in Florida, about half of our service calls involve ants in the switch. These little guys are so tough that when the pressure switch calls for water and there is an ant walking across the points that are going to close on him, his little body keeps the points from touching and the pump from starting. Sometimes after a while the potential current at the points will start burning the ant until the points again come together. Or you will have to manually flick the points to get them back together.

I tell my customers to spray all around the switch, the pipes they walk up as well as the conduit housing the wires. This won't stop them from coming through the conduit mind you. But spraying is the best answer I have.

I tried moth balls on someones advice. They ate it; I think. Andro just moves the hill over three feet or so. And the chemicals that would work good have all been banned.

So just call us when the water stops and we'll come out and flick your switch points, charge you $69.00 and go away till next time.

bob...

Ant Terrorist

I'm laughing at your response - I hope you have frequent flyer miles - It is a short hop from Florida to SC - I'm happy to find out that this is not happening just on my property.....5 acres of ants is no fun - They've even started bothering my horses....What is the life

Are these little guys Fire Ants or some other kind. If they are Fire Ants, you will know because of the bite they leave. It hurts and sometimes hundreds of them will get all over your legs without you knowing it then all bite at once.

I have no more Fire Ants, some little black ant has taken their place. They irradicated the Fire Ants but there are about ten million more of them than there ever were Fire Ants.

Go Figure.

bob...

Permethrin

Permethrin is a persistent insecticide that works. I used some in the house in an area frequented by ants. Now we are finding dead ants and other insects, but no live ants.

I got a quart of it (High Yield brand) at a farm store. Mix up a super-strong mix and paint it on and IN your pressure switch and the wires and pipes leading to it. It kills on contact (but not people).

To give you confidence in safety, the military uses it to impregnate clothes and nets to be used in malaria areas to kill mosquitos. It survives several washings.

Not to be a cinic Bob, but the military used Agent Orange also. Not to mention a bunch of other experiments on our troops in the past.

I'm sure the Permethrin works good, but I wouldn't use the Military as a safety guide.

bob...

For those wanting an organic solution........there is a guy out of Dallas calls himself the dirt doctor, swears that fire ants hate molasses! I haven't tryed it but supposedly either liquid molasses sprayed on or dry molasses spread and watered in. Not sure it wouldn't attract sugar ants though? My dad is trying the dryed molasses on his yard this week(also acts as a fertilizer).
Seems like fire ants are attracted to electrical equipment,especially ones located close to the ground.
Mike

I guess it goes without saying that you're not just going to slop the stuff indiscriminately around the wellsite...

ants in the works

It's not just a problem in the South. My neighbor's elec. box for the well control was humming and I called and told them. They checked it out and found a whole colony of ants under the cover. So....look to the electrics, not the pump.