McCoy Ant Stomper Windmill

in Fire Ant Museum — January 27, 2011 9:54 am | 2 comments

 
Dead ants after using McCoy Ant Stomper. Photo by Neal Lee.

Dead ants at base of McCoy Ant Stomper Windmill. Photo by Neal Lee.

Possibly the first non-chemical fire ant control device, the McCoy Ant Stomper was a windmill. Although marketed for fire ant control, it was developed in Lubbock, Texas to control the red harvester ants that emerge from their mounds using central openings.As the windmill turned, a heavy metal roller at the base was activated to “run over” worker ants emerging from the mound. The McCoy Ant Stomper was advertised in the Progressive Farmer magazine around 1978. A replica was built by E. N. Bennett in 2000, who claims they were originally built in 1910 to kill “cut ants” in Kansas. Note: “cut ants” are suspected to by Pogonomyrmex species of harvester ants because leaf-cutting ants in the genus Atta, do not occur in the state).  Read more about novel methods of fire ant control at eXtension. >>>

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2 Comments

 
  1. Kurt House says:
    June 8, 2011 at 6:10 pm

    Hello, glad to find this on the internet. I am looking for one of the old machines, I think made in San Antonio, Texas. Where can I find information on them? I have seen 2 or 3 in my lifetime….. Kurt House, San Antonio, TX

  2. Bart M. Drees says:
    July 19, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    We cover them in the “Virtual Museum” at http://www.eXtension.org/fire+ants. Included is the 1973 Progressive Farmer magazine advertisement, stills and videos of a replication of one I purchased several years ago. I would have to really search my files to find the source again.

 

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