Fire ant control

[geneP]

I saw in a post in the "attachments" forum where someone hit a fire ant bed and bent a brush hog blade. I realized that I have been reading this site for more than a year and don't remember seeing any threads on control of the rascals. I did a search and didn't find much, either.

What are tried and true methods and or poisons? I've used several brands of baits and mixed poisons with water to control them in the yard around the house, but have not made any efforts on the other parts of the acreage because of the expense and time required to take on the task.

If anyone has had success in controling these pests, please share your method with the rest of us.

 

[fishman]

GeneP,

I have had my best success with Amdro. It is a targeted bait that doesn't kill a lot of other beneficial insects. It is very easy to put out, and, unlike some other fire ant poisons, it doesn't have that funky smell. It kind of depends on what scale you are wanting control. I have been fairly successful at keeping a couple acres around my house ant-free, but the other 8 has to look out for itself /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif. One other thing, I think Amdro has a warning to watch your pets, as they are sometimes attracted to the stuff.

 

[dmccarty]

I have read the Amdro is one of the best controls to use on fireants. So far we don't have them in my county yet but they are only one county to the south and I'm sure they will be here soon.

To keep pets out of certain areas I have found that looped wire fence works real well. I have bought the 4-5 foot tall fence in whatever length I thought I needed. I cut off a 5-10 feet to make a circle of fence if that makes sense. It usually will stand up on its own by a metal fence post or two pounded into the ground and some wire ties would keep the loop in place and the pets out.

Hope this helps.....
Dan WhoHasBeenBittenManyTimesByFireAnts McCarty

 

[roysallis]

Try this site, it has a lot of good info on insect and pest control. http://www.bugspray.com/article/fireants.html

 

[TxBilly]

Gene
Read this article from Texas A&M.
http://entowww.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/b-1536.html
Good luck -- I am in the same situation!
Bill

 

[Bird]

geneP, when I bought my place, the fire ants had control; the guy who owned it before never did any kind of maintenance. I've tried a wide variety of stuff and most of them work to some extent, but the best thing I've found is to broadcast Logic once or twice a year; stuff costs me $9 a pound, but you only spread it at the rate of one pound per acre. Then every time I see a new mound starting, I pour a gallon of water on it with 2 ounces of either diazinon or malathion.

Bird

 

[geneP]

Thanks, guys, for the info and links. It sounds like broadcasting bait and spot treating mounds is about all you can do. I've used Amdro and gotten pretty good results with it.

Bird, I assume the Logic is available at farm stores?

Thanks again for all the comments

Gene

 

[Bird]

Gene, I buy the Logic at the local "ag chemical" place (3 pound containers - about $11 a pound in the one pound containers). They sell all kinds of agricultural chemicals. Of course, for the big boys they also have the big equipment to deliver and apply the chemicals, but that part's out of my league./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

And Gene, just for your information, Logic also has another name and right now I can't remember what it was. It's yellow cornmeal soaked with the poison so you can imagine how thin it's spread for one pound to cover an acre. The instructions say if you can see it, you're getting it too thick. The instructions also say to not apply it to pasture being grazed by cattle, but OK for horse pasture but only if the horses will not be used for human consumption./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Naturally my curiosity got me to doing some checking and it seems there's no indication that it ever hurt an animal, but the manufacturers have not "proven" that it can't get into the meat supply. I checked with my county agent and asked how long after applying it should you keep cattle off the pature and he said he thought 2 weeks was plenty, but that he also knew people are applying it to pastures without removing the cattle at all.

Bird

 

[geneP]

Thanks, Bird, I'll see if I can find it.

I'm not running any livestock.

 

[jinman]

Gene, for a totally organic approach to fire ant control, try this link:
http://www.dirtdoctor.com
He has at least two formulas which works on fire ants. One of them uses a citrus concentrate and soap. The citrus melts the external skeleton of the fire ants and you put about a gallon of mixture on each mound (large mound) so you get the queen. The soap is a wetting agent.
The second method is a cocktail of citrus extract, compost tea, molasses, and vinegar. This bait melts the fire ant skeleton and the organic agents in the compost tea (mad from manure) attack the fire ants. The molasses and vinegar actually are biostimulants which will attract biological activity to the location of the mound. Fire ants hate competition and will not return to the same spot. Ever notice how fire ants seem to always come back to the the same places? That's because when we poison the previous ants, we kill off all the additional beneficial bugs. By using poison, when its toxicity is depleted, we have a perfect place for fire ants to return.

I have used these organic approaches around my pond dams and they work. I'm not one of those persons who is strictly against poisons, but I believe we should give the non-toxic way a chance to work. I'm always afraid of strong poisons because all the fireflys (lightning bugs) have disappeared and many lizards as well. I'm just not sure what the long-term effects of using toxic pesticides and herbicides are.

Good luck.


JimI<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by jinman on 05/26/01 06:08 PM (server time).</FONT></P>