METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GROUND PEST CONTROL UTILIZING THE APPLICATION OF A FLAME AT MULTIPLE CAVITIES

摘要

Method and apparatus for controlling ground pests, particularly social insects such as ants of genus Solenopsis, which includes the insect known popularly as "fire ant", as well as termites and other ground arthropods. The method involves opening a multiplicity of approximately tubular cavities (2) made with a perforating apparatus fashioned from a tube of steel or other material around the area where most of the animals occur, and the brief application of intense heat at the entrances to the aforementioned cavities, by means of an apparatus producing a directed flame (9). The method can therefore use, in the case of social arthropods, the structure of interconnected tunnels excavated by the animals themselves in their nests for propagating the heat, which is distributed more easily due to the multiple cavities made in the ground with the perforating apparatus, causing the immediate mortality of most of the individuals near the application areas, and subsequently generating a significant change in the nest micro habitat, in the case of social arthropods.