Fire ants in my hayfields

beefmaster · Jul 13, 2004

I live in southern ok and my hay fields are on black sticky gumbo type land.Fire ants have been steadily encroaching in our part of the country for several years now.I cut my hay with an old john deere model 37 sickle mower.Everytime i hit a fire ant mound i have to get off and dig out the mud between the sections.This year was the worst yet,i think i was off of the tractor more than i was on it. I was wondering if anybody from the south east part of the united states where there have been fire ants for a long time has a solution for this problem.Yes i know you can buy a disc mower which some in our part of the country have done but i am a small operator and can't justify the cost.Just thought there may be something out there such as an attachment or trick i have'nt thought of.Any ideas or help is appreciated.

HayDR · Jul 13, 2004

You might want to look a a CCM Drum mower. They will eat through the fire ant hills and not hurt your pocket book. They are start at $2,000 new.

RHughes · Jul 14, 2004

Rather than trying to buy new equipment, you may want to try to control the ants. Amdro Pro is aproved (in Alabama at least) for broadcast applications. There are others available for spot application.
This document at the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service may help.

slowrev · Jul 14, 2004

Fought fire ants in FL a lot and just seemed to keep them beat back a bit and it was not cheap.......

Soundguy any comments on fighting fire ants ??

beenthere · Jul 14, 2004

My thoughts too ( to blast them with chemical) but wondered what the est. cost per acre is to get rid of them, or at least control them. Chlorodane used to work good. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

slowrev · Jul 15, 2004

Yeah chloridane worked well but killed everything for many years, sort of like nuking the place....Still I miss it for termites....

Talked to my hay expert yesterday evening about the ant mound problem, he said either a rotary or disk cutter was the only way to go. Ane he still likes using sickle cutters.....
Crawdad mounds cause the same/similiar problem here in swampy areas.

RHughes · Jul 15, 2004

Makes me wish for the "good ol' days" of Heptachlor!
That stuff worked fast. I sometimes wonder if we had been able to continue using it for a few more years if it would have been possible to wipe out fireants.
Probably would have wiped out a few other things as well, though...