Fall Can Spell End Game for Fire Ants
Fall is an ideal time to treat for fire ant infestations, experts say.
The leaves are turning and the temperature is cooling. But just because homeonwners' attention to turns to football and the annual ritual of raking doesn't mean that fire ants take the season off.
"Fall is a great time to treat for fire ants because it stops fire ants from rebounding in winter," says Tim Davis of Clemson (S.C.) University, referring to the knockout punch fire ants received, which stops them from repopulating. "Fall treatments result in very low fire ant populations in the spring."
Davis suggests that homeowners also treat their lawns with a fipronil-based broadcast product in January and February as a further preventative method.
"Bait treatments rely on fire ant activity" where they retrieve tainted bait while foraging, he says, addin gthat "fipronil-based broadcast treaments are contacted insecticides," which simply require pests to come in contact with tainted granules. As soon as an ant makes contact with the product, they are poisoned and carry the toxin back to their colonies on their bodies. This is in contrast to baits, which require that food is present.
Many areas that are subject to fire ant breaches stay warm well into the fall, leaving fire ants susceptible to late-season treatment. Predictable fall weather patterns mean that homeowners can spread a treatment without worrying that rain will dilute the active ingredient.
Best of all, controlling fire ants in the fall means that they will die off as the weather turns cold, before they have a chance to repopulate over the winter. This can mean your property can be void of fire ants when the weather turns warm.
