Question
Hi Charlotte!
  I just moved into a house with an St. Augustine lawn that's having an huge out burst of dollar weeds, crab weeds, and fire ants problem. I'm looking for an Organic solution since I have an reservation in the back area with animals that comes out all the time. I know you recommended sugar for the weed problem.. but will that help the fire ants problem too?
Thank you.

Gratefully,
Sue

Answer
Hi sue;
Sugar for the weeds.
Sugar keeps the beneficial microbes alive, they enrich the soil, and the rich soil is unfriendly to weeds. Weeds love poor soil, especially dollar weeds, crabgrass, johnson grass, poison ivy etc. Thoes and the dandelions were the first to die out when i started putting down the sugar.
The main ingredient in effective fire ant killers is orange oil.
The fastest way to get rid of them is to buy oranges, chop the peels and scatter them over the yard. Those fire ants will leave your yard right away.You don't have to cover every inch with orange peels, in fact, if they are all over your yard, I would go this way.
Get baga of epsom Salts from Walmart etc. A bag that has about a half gallon of epsom Salts costs about 3 dollars. Buy a bag of oranges. The navel oranges seem to have more oil in the peels.
Put the peels of 2 or 3 large oranges in a food processer etc,,and chop them up really fine. Mix them with one bag of the Epson Salts, close in a container overnight, or at least a few hours, shaking it up often so the salts absorbs the oil, the broadcast that by hand. I would throu a handful of orange peels on each hill forst, then chop the peels. The peels of a dozen oranges will cover a larger area mixed with the epsom salts, and the oil in the salts will stay on the surface of the soil longer when the peels are ground up that fine, and distributed.
They are so moist with the oil, that just ground up, it would be harder to broadcast them and get even coverage. They want to clump together more. The epsom Salts separates it, and spreads the oil over a larger area.
The Epsom Salts is beneficial to your grass and plants too.
Sugar is all I have put on my yard for about 8 years, and I have no weeds, a thing dark green lawn, and no worries about my grandchildren and dogs, or stray animals or neighborhood cats that might come into my yard.
Chopped lemon peels will keep kitties from using your flower beds and container plants for a litter box.
Write anytime.
If you want to know what i use inside the house to keep rid of insects, I am always glad to share what i have learned.
Charlotte