Well, it depends on what is growing in the pot. If it’s flowers you can use bait or poison. No big deal. But this is a fruit tree. I could try drenching with a bucket of neem oil, but I just don’t think that’s going to do it.
I’ve tipped it over, and the entire mound is in the pot. I hit the sides with my fist and rolled the pot and they were just boiling out of it. So I considered my options, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to start over with completely new soil.
I’m going to run a shovel around the inside of the pot and loosen the soil. Then I’m going to pull the plant and the roots completely out of the pot and use a high pressure hose sprayer and knock all of these nasty guys (and their tunnels) off of the plant. If I leave them in there they will kill the tree. They are so good at repelling water in their mounds that this tree will dry out and die if I don’t do something.
Not looking forward to this at all. Messing with just a few fire ants can be a big deal. Removing and angering a whole mound is probably going to mean rubbing bleach water on all of the bites to stop the blisters. (Fire ant stings and bites are acidic. Bleach is a base. This is what you do in Texas to deal with these awful imported ants.)
Yay.
See you outside attempting to remove fireants without getting covered in them and stung a million times!
Crazy Green Thumbs
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Crazy Green Thumbs 
I do look forward to hearing how this works out…
Hopefully, I don’t get too many stings!
Fortunately, they do not live here. I have heard about them, and do not want to get acquainted with them.
Yeah, they thought there would be a northern range, but now they’re in British Columbia. Apparently they just dig deeper. Unfortunately they are projected to be all across north America in the future. Nasty damn things. My kids don’t know what it’s like to lay in the grass and watch the clouds. You’d definitely get stung doing that now.
So, . . . they could eventually be HERE?!
Yep. They are, already there according to this extension office: https://ant-pests.extension.org/fire-ants-in-california/ the new thing we have is “crazy ants” they run around like they are swarming. Luckily they don’t sting, but they eat the plastic wiring coverings in cars and homes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasberry_crazy_ant There’s always more problems with imported ants.
Gads! I know some of those places down south!