Using Boiling Water on Fire Ant Mounds
One of the common home remedies for fire ants is to use a pot of boiling water on fire ant mounds as you find them in your yard. This method is at best effective at killing about 60% of the mounds you use it on - there are still going to be ants that survive it. It is most effective when used right after a rainfall - when it rains, fire ants go into construction mode and will begin building up fresh mounds. That means a lot of them are near the surface and vulnerable to the scalding water. Also, because rain can turn the tunnels to mud, it makes it harder for tthe ants to just move deeper into the mound to avoid being scorched, and stops them from up and moving to another location.
The process is pretty easy. First, boil a pot of water - at a minimum you are going to need two or three gallons per mound. Make a hole in the top of the mound (to allow the water to go in deeper). Then just pour it directly into the hole - you'll kill a large number of fire ants that way. The only problem - you need to kill the queen in order to actually get rid of the colony itself. If she survives the water, all you've done is damaged them - and they might just pull up stake and move to another part of your yard. However, you can easily pour water on any other mounds that show up.
There are a couple of drawbacks, however. First, it can make the soil sterile in some cases - so it's a bad idea for most people, who will want grass to grow back where the fire ants were living. Second, it will kill all vegetation in the area that the boiling water was poured - meaning you can end up with a big brown spot on your lawn. This treatment is not a good idea unless the part of your property with fire ants isn't a traditional yard with grass.
Finally, if you do this, BE VERY CAREFUL. Carrying around pots of boiling water can be dangerous if you spill any on yourself. Try lugging around the pot full of water before you boil it - so you make sure it's not too heavy when it's actually dangerous.
Steam Generators:
Some people have also used steam generators to accomplish the same thing (scalding the ants to death). That's probably more trouble than it's worth, but if you've got one, have a persistent fire ant problem, and don't want to use chemical pest control methods, it might be worth a shot to see if it's easier for you.
Sources and Useful Links::
http://www.noble.org/Ag/Soils/FireAntInvasion/index.html
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/LH059
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/fireants.html
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/B1191.htm
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