Fire ants are a truly nasty pest; with their nasty bites, their adaptability, and their long lives it can be hard not to take their existence personally. Most people answer by declaring war on the fire ant; using a lot of poison to completely eradicate a nest will work on that nest, but it will not solve the fire ant issue as a whole and it may even do further harm to other organisms, including humans, as well as the ecosystem in general.

The first thing you need to do when you spot a fire ant nest is to resist the urge to go out and drench it with deadly, unsafe insecticides. Instead, contact a company that specializes in least toxic pest control and ask them to have a look at the situation. It’s pretty familiar territory; each year in the Southwest the federal government spends millions of dollars combating these introduced species. Let’s take a look at some ways that fire ants can be controlled without resorting to a lot of poisons and other chemicals.

• The regular ant approach does not always work. Fire ants are different from sugar or carpenter ants both in their bites and the way in which they colonize. One colony may actually have several queens, or may be able to replace a queen that passes into ant hell. Therefore, baiting with poisons will rarely wipe out a colony of fire ants that has existed for any amount of time.
• Baits. With that said, baits can be an effective part of a fire ant control program that uses two different steps. These baits won’t wipe out the whole population, but they will reduce it somewhat, allowing you a stronger foothold in the war the next year.
• Treatments. After bringing down the population with bait over a few weeks, begin to treat the ground with insecticides in the form of dust or granules. Most often the active ingredient in these baits and treatments is boric acid, which is indetectable to fire ants and which will cause them - and the queen – to die of dehydration or starvation.
• Drenches. You can also treat a fire ant mound by drenching it, as mentioned above. The key will be in finding a drench that is least toxic; drenches by nature will contain higher concentrations of toxic materials than other types of control methods. Make sure that you keep children and pets well clear of the treated areas for a couple of weeks after the drenching takes place, even if you use a comparatively mild one.

The biggest problem with fire ants is their persistence. They are almost impossible to exterminate, and they are spreading rapidly. While for now they are found mostly in the southwest, experts believe that in time they will make there way up the entire Pacific coast due to the favorable living conditions. This is unfortunate for humans and the ecosystem in general, as you can see in the article Problems caused by Fire Ants.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 11:32 am and is filed under Ants, Lawn and Garden, Natural Pest Control. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.