The exact number of pots of boiling water I have carried to the back yard and carefully poured into the egg and larva filled mounds of fire ants this morning is unknown. I lost count when it hit double digits. Let’s just say the number is high. Many fire ants have died this day. Only two sunk their fangs into me.

Since it was such a beautiful morning, I decided to go get that gardening work done. I did get some weeding done, and two of the potato plants have had their dirt piles piled higher, but then I saw the mother of all fire ant mounds. The largest fire ant mound I had ever seen with my own eyes. They had invaded a ten gallon pot with a basil plant in it, and the mound was in the pot and growing along the sides. Then I saw the off-shoot mounds nearby. The horror!

So I set about filling, boiling, pouring, refilling, boiling, pouring … over and over and over. I’ve been at it for hours. I’ve finally had to stop. My arms were getting tired, and I was afraid of dropping a large pot of boiling water on myself (or heaven forbid, a cat who decided to get in the way at the wrong time). Also, the fire ants that aren’t dead are all kinds of upset right now, and they are everywhere. Safer for me to just call it a day on the fire ant massacre.

I think since these particular mounds are not directly in my garden or in soil I will ever be planting in, tomorrow when I go to the store, I will be buying the most deadly, most toxic to life as we know it, most horrifying fire ant poison I can find. This weekend we will be going around to as many stores as necessary to find the organic stuff that is safe to use around food plants. But something has to be done about this mega-nest NOW. I may have put a dent in their numbers, but I am 100% certain I did not kill the queen or destroy their community beyond repair. They have to be gone, and I don’t care what it takes to make that happen.

That has been my day thus far. Pouring endless pots of boiling water on fire ant mounds. Now I am hungry, sweaty, and tired. It’s time to take care of those things, and then, owing to the post-antihistamine wooziness I am beginning to feel as I type this, I think I’ll be finding something mindless but useful to fill my afternoon hours.

And tomorrow … the true Fire Ant Massacre begins. It’s WAR!