Fire Ant Control Summary
Excerpts from Steve Tvedten's book "The Best Control
(2nd Edition)"
Fire Ant Control Summary:
Fire ants can be quickly controlled when sprayed or flooded and drenched with Kleen ‘Em Away Naturally® or Safe Solutions, Inc. Enzyme Cleaner with Peppermint. Applications of copious amounts of diluted enzyme cleaners or carbon dioxide are most effective when the nest is drenched mid-morning on sunny days after cool nights in the early spring or late fall. Poke a stick into the nest and make several holes to accept the mixture; then flood the entire area, or bait with enzyme cleaners. Call Safe Solutions, Inc. at 1-616-677-2850. Whitmire Research Laboratories recently introduced PT 370 Ascend Fire Ant Bait® which contains 0.011% avermectin B1 in a highly attractive corn grit base saturated with protein oil. Avermectin is naturally derived from the soil fungus Streptomyces avermiltilis. Ascend works both as an acute toxicant and as an insect growth regulator to quickly and effectively control fire ants. Foraging fire ants carry Ascend’s dual action insecticide back to the mound. Ascend’s stomach insecticide works slowly but surely to reduce the colony’s population; be sure to allow enough time for its unique sterilizing property to be passed on to the queen. This causes the worker brood to eventually disappear, and the colony is ultimately destroyed. Note: Parasitic Brazilian, Pseudacteon 18 spp, flies are parasitic only on fire ants. The female fly deposits an egg on or in a fire ant’s body. The maggot moves through the neck into the head and eats the contents; then an enzyme dissolves the connecting tissue and the head falls off. That is just another reason why enzyme cleaners kill any ant species very quickly. At least 18 species of Phorid flies are known to be parasitic on a number of ant species, including imported fire ants. The parasitic nematode (Neoplectana carpocapsae), when combined with a bait may give results if undetected as will the fire mite when introduced into the colony. There is anaother nematode that also can be used - Steinernema carpocapsae. There also is a protozoan disease called Theohania solenopsae and a workerless social parasite called Solenopsis dagerrei. Large colonies of Argentine ants will keep fire ants at bay - These two species can not and will not co-habit or co-exist in the same area. Talcum powder and/or medicated body powder or food-grade DE or napthalene will also control/repel fire ants. Also, don’t forget to caulk, fill or seal off any openings into your building. You can also use WD40 or vacuum up fire ants where it is not safe to use water sprays or foam or steam or carbon dioxide. Once a natural enemy or pathogen is introduced to a small area, it spreads quickly on its own - thus no professional from the poison industry wants to develop these extremely safe and effective pest controls - because there is no profit incentive. Reinfestation can be expected every 6 months if you use "registered" poisons. According to an advertisement in the February 2001 issue of Pest Control: "Purchases of fire ant ‘control’ products are in excess of $100 million annually and growing."California’s Fire Ant (Pesticide Poison) Battle Plan -
Leslie Berkman from The Press Enterprise Company published 3/20/99 quoted the California State Department of Food and Agriculture who acknowledged that "the possibility of eradication is low and will be difficult to achieve." That conclusion, the State said, is based on "the widespread nature of the infestation, the biology of (the ant) and the fact that the ant) has never been eradicated since being introduced in the United States." Conspicuously absent from the State plan was a price tag. (The State’s "battle plan" will spray "registered" poisons via helicopter even though this has never been done successfully anywhere. California State Republican Assemblyman, Bill Campbell, said, "I’d be willing to stand out in the field when that helicopter is going overhead." Amazing!