FIRE ANT BIOLOGY AND HISTORY ^
Fire Ants are prevalent throughout all the southern states of America. Black Imported and Red Imported Fire Ants are fierce, territorial and persistent. Their mounds vary in size and may be found anywhere in the yard.
Fire ant peak activity is spring to December. They are less active in January, February and March but will emerge on warm days foraging about looking for food and someone to sting.
Throughout the spring into winter, active mounds will send out “swarmer” ants. Like termites, these are winged males and females who start new colonies by flying around away from their release nest to new yards.
If this is not the ant information you were looking for, we have other in depth articles posted here: CARPENTER ANTS SMALL HOUSE ANTS HARVESTER ANTS PISS ANTS
HOW TO TREAT FIRE ANT STINGS ^
When colonies are established around buildings, picnic areas, sitting areas, and playgrounds, your children may encounter these nasty little demons. These encounters may lead to pets and children getting stung.
As homeowners and parents, you should strive to control your environment so your young ones won’t have to worry about being stung. Fire Ants may be little, but they pack a nasty sting which will itch and become irritated immediately.
If you or family members get stung, use our STING RELIEF SWABS for quick relief. This product is very effective at both stopping the itch and allowing the wound to heal.
FIRE ANT CONTROL
^
There are two steps for controlling and keeping fire ants out off your property. The first step is to spray the entire yard, or at least the areas you want to keep fire ant free. After that, bait to pick off the stragglers or prevent new nests from forming.
BEST FIREANT SPRAY ^
So the first step is to spray the yard with PROTHOR. Plan on using 1 oz per 1,000 sq/ft of turf and 2 gallons of water to get it applied.
So if you’re yard is 5,000 sq/ft, you’ll be adding 5 oz of Prothor and then using a HOSE END SPRAYER, spray it out using 10 gallons of water.
Prothor is very unique in that it won’t spook or alarm the ants. So once applied, they’ll be walking through it and in turn, be bringing it back to their nests and mounds where it will kill the ants down in the ground.
Prothor is odorless, treatments will last a month and it won’t contaminate any bait used on top of it because its non repelling. This feature makes it ideal for fire ant mounds.
So as mentioned above, if you were to be treating a 5,000 sq/ft yard, you would add 5 oz to our 20 GALLON HOSE END SPRAYER. Next add some water so the sprayer is filled to the “10 gallon line”. This is about half way.
What this means is that to empty the sprayer, you’ll be spraying 10 gallons of water.
If the yard is 10,000 sq/ft (about 1/4 acre)? Add 10 oz to the sprayer and then fill it to the top with water. The full sprayer will require 20 gallons of water to empty.
In general, one thorough spraying followed by our bait (below) will knock out all the mounds. After that, plan on spraying 1-2 a year and baiting every 1-2 months.
BEST FIRE ANT BAIT ^
The best fire ant bait on the market right now is ABATHOR FIRE ANT BAIT. Fire ants love this formulation and can’t help but eat as much as they can find.
Abathor uses a slow action agent that will be brought back to their nests and once consumed, take effect.
Abathor gets you great coverage too. The 2 jb jug covers two acres so use it at the rate of 1 lb per acre.
Apply it 1 day after spraying the Prothor and after that first application, use it every 1-2 months to make sure new nests don’t form.
Fire ants can be a problem where young children and pets want to play. To minimize risk of Fire Ant stings, apply Abathor every month or two from spring through fall. This will prevent nests from forming. But if you have nests? Get the Prothor applied first and then bait.
CONTACT US ^
Give us a call if you need further help. Our toll free is 1-800-877-7290 and we’re open Monday through Thursday, 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM. On Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM and on Saturday, 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time).
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David says
I was given a John Deere tractor tractor yesterday. Sounds great huh? It’s been sitting up for three years. It ran before so why not now right?When I went to pick it up I noticed fire ants. I’m in Texas and fire ants have and always be a battle here. When I had it home I found in the engine department when I removed the air filter cover and the filter. It was full of eggs and many more fire ants. They have to be in the carburetor of the engine as well. I found nothing that would give me a direct answer to my question. “How to destroy a fire ant colony in a tractor lawn equipment.” To my surprise no matter which one I looked at didn’t have a answer even close to answering my question. Perhaps you can or should be able to post a answer to questions concerning equipment. A mound approach won’t work. A drenching is diffidently out of the question when a engine is concerned. So, make my day and I will promote your site to friends and family. Be simple and direct. Nobody likes a long winded answer to a simple question, especially this Combat Veteran. Thanks for your time.
DAK
Tech Support says
David,
We would have responded sooner but your comment was filtered as “spam” and not found until today..
The best way we’ve found to treat problems like involves using a unique “non repelling” aerosol. It won’t kill quickly; it will take 2-3 days to work its way into their nest. But it won’t spook or aggravate them either. Basically they won’t know its there.
Assuming you can get within 3-4 feet of the nest or at least where there are lots of ants active, all you have to do is mist the activity with 2-4 seconds of spray. If done light enough, you won’t even notice it was applied.
Once on the area, the ants will share it to all members of the colony and it should shut down. We recommend spraying every evening, just before dark, for 2-4 seconds. do this for 3 evenings in a row. But the third evening, they will be gone/dead.
Alpine Aerosol: https://bugspray.com/insecticide/aerosol/pt-alpine-aerosol-20-oz.html
Tech Support
U-Spray Bugspray
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