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 FOR THE YARD
^
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 FOR THE YARD
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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.
HOW TO TREAT FIRE ANTS INSIDE THE HOME ^
If you have fire ants in the home, they can cause a lot of discomfort for pets, young children and most anyone, most anytime. Fire ants inside any house will be foraging for food and a chance encounter with one will usually end in a sting.
The first thing to do is NOTHING. Don’t panic; if you have a lot, use a vacuum to remove them but DO NOT touch them and DO NOT SPRAY ANYTHING!
Most all “over the counter” products will contain actives that can kill what you see. But what you see active is but 1% or less than the colony and once you kill those ants, twice as many will come looking for them.
So how do you treat them?
BEST INSIDE THE HOUSE FIRE ANT BAIT ^
The first thing you do is set our some ABATHOR ANT GEL where you see active ants. This gel will be quickly accepted by them, brought back to their nests and then shared with others. Whether the nest is under a slab, in your wall out in the yard, this bait will affect them in a few days. It uses a super sweet food lure fire ants can’t resist.
Plan on setting out rice size placements in any room where active. Placements can be discreetly made hidden from view but ideally, our REFILLABLE BAIT STATIONS listed below is the best way to use this bait.
One tube will be enough for the average problem; set out 1/4 to 1/2 of the tube to start and renew it every 2 weeks.
Our REFILLABLE BAIT STATIONS are the best way to use the bait for two reasons. First they let you move the bait around to where you see activity and second, the station protects the bait from getting dusty and dirty.
BEST FIRE ANT SPRAY FOR INSIDE THE HOUSE ^
In general, bait placements should be made up high on countertops, inside cabinets and most any place above the baseboard. But if you see fire ants active in the carpeting, baseboards or under appliances, get our ALPINE WETTABLE POWDER.
Alpine uses a undetectable active so the ants won’t know its anything to be worried about. They’ll regularly move over it all the while picking it up and bringing it back to their nests.
Like the bait, the spray will “kick in” and start killing them in 2-3 days. The great thing about Alpine is that you can use it safely anywhere in the home and treatments will last 2-4 weeks.
Mix 1 pack per 1/2 gallon of water and use the entire mixture throughout the house. Focus on baseboards, under appliances, under furniture and any place “low” where ants are seen.
In most all cases, a single treatment of Abathor Gel and one 1/2 gallon of Alpine applied inside combined with the outside sprayed with Prothor will get rid of you fire ants for good.
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, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. On Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 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/catalog/insecticide/aerosol/pt-alpine-aerosol-20-oz.html
Tech Support
U-Spray Bugspray
http://www.bugspray.com
1-800-877-7290
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