April 21, 2000
ANOTHER SIGN OF SPRING: FIRE ANTS
Contact: Lisa Lennon, (512)473-9600, li-lennon@tamu.edu

AUSTIN--Spring brings warm humid air, showers to wet soil in flower beds and yards, and perfect conditions for attracting fire ants, according to Lisa Lennon, County Extension Agent for the Integrated Pest Management program in Travis and Williamson counties.

"The past dry winter kept fire ants deep in the ground, and this spring is the ideal time for imported fire ants to begin working their mounds and causing problems for homeowners," Lennon said."Fire ants like to nest in open, sunny yards that are mowed and watered regularly. They will nest in vegetable gardens, at the base of trees, between sidewalk cracks and next to building foundations."

Imported fire ants travel from yard to yard, and easily disperse longer distances through periodic mating flights.

"Spring is a particularly good time to begin an organized fire ant management program," said Lennon said. "Homeowners will continue to battle these ants and pay a higher expense of attempting to control these pests unless a coordinated effort is organized to suppress ants on a larger scale."

According to Lennon, many communities and neighborhoods across Texas are now working together to more successfully manage fire ants. These community-wide treatments are safer for the environment because less pesticide is actually used to gain control of the ants. Treatment approaches are best selected to fit specific fire ant problems. For example, a yard with a few fire ant mounds requires a different approach to management than a heavily infested area.

For heavily-infested areas, the Two-Step Method is the preferred approach, because it is more cost-effective and environmentally sound. It relies on the once or twice per year broadcast application of a fire ant bait product. The second step is to eliminate only troublesome nuisance mounds with a dust, liquid drench, or granular ant mound treatment. The goal is to reduce or eliminate these labor-intensive and costly mound-to-mound treatments.

For more information on fire ant management contact your local county Extension agent or visit the Texas Fire Ant Management Plan web site at http://fireant.tamu.edu .

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