Horticulture Hotline 01/17/23
Bill Lamson-Scribner
A pest in 2022 that wouldn’t seem to go away was the fire ant. Mole crickets go away for brief periods and moles never seem to go away. I don’t know if my eye is just trained to see fire ants or what but they seem to be everywhere.
With a good heavy sod roller, you can control damage from mole crickets and moles since most of their damage is cause by the roots of the grass plant separating from the soil causing the grass plant to dry out and die. Fire ants don’t like to be disturb. Can you imagine a to scale lawn mower running through your house?! A tornado combined with a big blade! Fire ants will usually set up house in flower beds, tree rings, guide wires, electrical boxes (they like the heat and can damage the wires not to mention a pain for someone to maintain the box) and other areas that mowers will not disturb them.
Believe it or not….fire ants are very easy to kill and manage! You will not eradicate them; however, you can manage them. There are many products on the market that will kill fire ants. Some products are more economical if you have large areas to treat, others do a great job at just killing fire ants, and other products will kill other insects as well as fire ants.
If you have a large area (16 or more acres) the bait products are very economical (less than 16 dollars an acre) and effective. If you have a smaller area, you can treat one acre for less than 35.00. Depending on the amount of rain that we get this summer and fall, you may have to retreat in six months if you notice any activity. Some bait products are designed to kill fire ants as well as other ants that are in your yard (carpenter ants, argentine ants).
It is best to spread the bait over the entire area once the soil surface temperature reaches 70 degrees. You also want to keep the bait dry for 24 hours, so watch the forecast. The ants must be actively foraging to pick up the bait. You can determine this by throwing some greasy potato chips or some of the bait itself on the ground and come back in 10 minutes to one half hour and see if the ants are carrying away the bait or chips. The bait products advantage is that it is low cost and effective.
Products containing bifenthrin (Bug Blaster) will give you long term control of ants as well. With Bug Blaster you don’t need to worry about rain, or whether the ants are foraging. Dr. Tim Davis, former head of fire ants for South Carolina with Clemson University, noted that he was getting at least eight months of control with bifenthrin in his test plots. Bifenthrin products are best applied over the entire yard. Bug Blaster’s biggest advantage is that not only will you kill fire ants, but you will kill army worms, sod web worms, fleas, chinch bugs, ticks (Lime disease), mole crickets, and many others.
There are many choices on the market; the biggest thing is determining which product fits your needs. Extinguish Plus and Advion Fire Ant Bait are two of my favorite bait products. Bug Blaster is a good contact product. Notice I only recommend treating the entire yard instead of chasing them around with mound treatments (stinky,white powder).
When it has been hot and dry, fire ants can be tricky and not so visible because their mound is underground. Don’t be fooled! They still bite!
Always read, understand and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.
