Methods for Fire Ant Control
Can you ever eliminate all the fire ants on your property? Yes, and no. Yes, you can kill every fire ant on your property when a treatment or combination of treatments are properly applied, however, even if you kill every fire ant on your property, new queens will soon be landing after their mating flights and starting new colonies. Fire ants are persistent. But if you treat regularly and/or preventively, you can keep most of these new colonies from surviving to become big mounds.
Keep in mind that your location: urban or rural, and the size of your property may determine the method(s) you use for controlling fire ants.
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There are three main ways to control fire ants:
- Individual mound treatments
- Broadcast insecticide treatments
- Granular baits
Individual Mound Treatment
Treating mounds individually may be all that is necessary for small properties or any property where only a few mounds show up from time to time. Insecticidal powders/dusts, such as products that contain 75% acephate, are the most effective and economical to get the job done one mound at a time.
Individual mound application instructions: When applying acephate dust do so only on dry mounds in the late afternoon when the temperatures are cooler and the ants are more active. Do not disturb the mound and do not water in. A teaspoon or two of acephate dust spread atop andin a line around the mound will kill all the ants in that mound, overnight. Always make sure to follow instructions on the product label for application rates and personal protection.Note: Granular insecticides that have to be transported and fed to the queens deep inside the mound are not as effective as acephate dust that attaches to the bodies of the ants and is spread through simple bodily contact with other ants and the queen in the mound.
