As the warmer weather continues to become constant, the want to get outside will increase. Growing up my E-ma would always keep us grand kids in the afternoon. When the warm weather came, we were outside all the time. We loved outside, until one of us kicked a fire ant mound by mistake and were ate slap up. Fire ants are boogers to any lawn, pasture, or field and can cause several larger problems. I wanted to take a little time to talk about management of ants as well as to debunk a few home remedies that people always recommend.
First, let’s talk about the foolproof home remedies that I often hear about. My buddy of mine called me and said, “hey what do you recommend for fire ants?” Naturally, I answered with what I am going to talk about below. He looked me dead in the eyes and said, “So, what you are saying is, the gallon of gasoline I dumped on the mound was probably not the best idea?” Myth number one is that chlorine, ammonia, gasoline, or diesel fuel is the best option for taking care of fire ants. While some results may occur, the overall negative effects out way the little mound of ants you dumped the harmful fluids on. These home remedies specifically can contaminate the soil and groundwater. Not to mention they are a tad bit on the flammable side. The other home remedies I hear is grits, molasses, club soda and pouring boiling water on the mound. I will save you the grocery bill now and tell you these methods have yielded zero results. Unless you are opening a Fire Ant Bed and Breakfast, leave the grits, molasses, and club soda in the kitchen. The boiling water may disrupt that particular mound, but that is just a temporary fix. Satellite mounds will pop up nearby shortly after.
Now that we have gotten that under control, I want to talk about what has proven to work. One of the more popular and effective treatments is to use baits. Apply baits twice a year in spring and fall and you should control about 90% of the fire ants. This is an inexpensive way of preventing ants. It may cost about $25 an acre to treat with baits. Use the baits according to label directions when ants are actively looking for food. Ants take the bait into the mound and feed them to each other. The baits slowly kill the fire ant colony, queen and all. Killing the queen is very important in controlling fire ants. The queen remains in the mound and reproduces while other ants go out and build the mound and find food. You can kill many of the foraging ants but you must kill the queen to destroy the mound. This is why spraying the ground or the mounds or using granular insecticides are not generally good ways of controlling fire ants.
One granular insecticide is an exception to this rule. One application of Over and Out (fipronil) should give about 95% fire ant control for a year. It must be used according to label directions. This is an expensive treatment (about $20 to $30 to treat 5,000 square feet) but it is very effective. These treatments may miss a few mounds. After using one of the above, treat remaining mounds individually. Mix up several gallons of a liquid insecticide in a bucket. Mark the bucket “Poison!” so you will not use it for other purposes. Quickly drench the mound with one to two gallons of insecticide. This should kill the fire ants within about a day or so. If not, treat again. There is another individual mound treatment you can use. Instead of drenching, sprinkle Orthene powder over the mound. For small yards or just a few mounds, you may only have to use these individual mound treatments to control all your fire ants.
Two more things to consider: pasture problems and what control means. Around here, pastures are a big deal. Just about, everyone in Effingham knows someone who has a pasture. We love us some pastureland. With that, pastureland usually comes some livestock animal or horse. That can be an issue if there are fire ants all over the place. Fire ant activity in livestock pastures can cause significant injury to livestock in mid-summer because the ants may forage for food and moisture in the same areas where livestock are grazing and/or giving birth. If possible, schedule fertility programs to avoid birthing during the heat of the summer, which can minimize fire ant-animal contact. Alternatively, provide livestock with a designated birthing area or pasture that has previously been treated with fire ant insecticides and has been checked for signs of active fire ant mounds.
The last thing is understanding what control of fire ants actually means. It is not the eradication of fire ants from your property. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, complete control would cost a lot of money. What we aim for is suppression and reduction of mounds and population. Like mentioned before, if you use a cultural practice for getting rid of ants without combining a poison in there, you will just have satellite mounds pop up nearby. The most effective way to control ants of any kind is to target the area you want to rid of ants, and essentially force them out of that area. They will not be gone forever, but they will not be an immediate inconvenience to you anymore.
Joke of the Week: Where do ants like to go shopping? The ANT-ique store!