# Fire ant control



## Thad (Nov 29, 2011)

Does anybody try to control fire ants in their hay fields? I would like to but even the expensive stuff u buy doesn't do a great job in the yard. Is there anything on the market that you can afford to put on hay fields to get them under control. I think they are here to stay unless we go through another ice age. I know I wont get rid of them completely but not hitting a mound every 2 or 3 minutes would be nice.


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## urednecku (Oct 18, 2010)

I've been wondering the same question. Been intending to ask my fertilizer man, but can't remember when I'm talking to him.


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## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

I use corn meal. Just regular corn meal you buy in the store.
Once they feed it to the queen the mound will fizzle.


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## urednecku (Oct 18, 2010)

Corn meal sounds interesting, I might try it. I once heard grits wold work, but it never did for me.
Years ago my Dad would mix up malathion, kick top off the bed & spray it good. Few days later, the bed would be lots smaller, he'd do it again, maybe 3 times or so.
Wish we could still get chlordane, a small amount of that stuff would wipe out the bed over night, never to come back.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I've had very good results with Spectracide Triazicide on individual mounds. It doesn't take much and usually knocks them out in a few hours.


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

I typically use one of the commercial type fire ant pesticides that you sprinkle on the mound. With varying success, I might add.

Problem is, fire ants are so pervasive and intrusive, you can treat a field and a week later, those mounds might be dead, but several more colonies have moved in from an adjacent field. Add to that, once your hay gets so high, it is hard to spot some of the mounds until right before you hit it with a mower.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

At one time Amdro was popular. 
It would be taken down to the colony and fed to the queen(S). A few weeks later use a kill the workers poisen.

For a calving pasture, drag the pasture every time a few mounds show. they will move the mounds to the fence row and it is easier to bait and poisen them.

We used to have long mounds of dead queens that fell on our tin roofs after maiting and the hot metal killed them. That was just an indiction of how bad they were infesting our pastures and hay fields.

With time, natural fire ant preditors move in and decrease the pressure.


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## MorganT69 (May 17, 2010)

I work on a Sod farm and own a hay farm, on the sod farm we spray the fields, I cant remember the name of the stuff but they leave the field, it doesnt kill them, it just makes them move, we have to spray every year for them.


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## Texasmark (Dec 20, 2011)

Years ago I used a product named Logic (Reg. trade mark). It was yellow granular, somewhat larger than corn meal and it was a queen killer.

You broadcast the product and go away for a couple of weeks without disturbing anything if you can help it.

The worker ants foraging around find it and take it home "Whoopee look at what I found". It apparently gets through the Queens food checkers and she gets fed it. Once that happens, the mound dies off.

I went for a lot of years with no detectable mounds in my field with mounds as close as 20 ft apart in adjacent fields. Ensure unplowed areas like fence rows especially get adequate coverage.....while doing the fence row, might as well get as close to the fence as you can and help yourself by helping your neighbor reduce his populations by "overspray". Grin

I found an article by TAMU that pretty well tells the story. It is expensive. Cost me $250 to do a 10 acre field, but like I said, they left and here it is many years later and they are a few around but not many. Might try it. Worked great for me.

Check out: fireant.tamu.edu/research/arr/category/broadcast/92.../92-93Pg13.pdfFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View

HTH,

Mark


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

Actually Logic (fenoxycarb) is an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR). It is the same as Award. It does not kill the ants; it stops egg laying by the queen and the reproductive ants are born sterile. As workers die off (from old age, etc), they are not replaced and the nest dies off. Amdro (hydramethynon) is faster and actually kills them. The abamectin based (nervous system toxin) are also effective but act a bit slower. All of them will work, and just cost money.

Hay Wilson's method of dragging the pasture every time some mounds show up is probably the cheapest way. Aggravate the hell out of them and eventually they'll move.


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## dubltrubl (Jul 19, 2010)

I gave up on trying to eradicate 'em. Now I just buy more mower blades!


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## Texasmark (Dec 20, 2011)

Mike120 said:


> Actually Logic (fenoxycarb) is an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR). It is the same as Award. It does not kill the ants; it stops egg laying by the queen and the reproductive ants are born sterile. As workers die off (from old age, etc), they are not replaced and the nest dies off. Amdro (hydramethynon) is faster and actually kills them. The abamectin based (nervous system toxin) are also effective but act a bit slower. All of them will work, and just cost money.
> 
> Hay Wilson's method of dragging the pasture every time some mounds show up is probably the cheapest way. Aggravate the hell out of them and eventually they'll move.


Well whatever you say it does.....beins you are the apparent expert quoting some apparent facts. It works, and TAMU agrees that it works via their field tests, and they are unbiased...I guess. Don't know where you are coming from and what ties, if any, you have to product suppliers/mfgrs. Will have a look at your recommendations about Amdro, but used it in the past and not happy at all....Bayer did a better job for pennies.

On the plowing thing, yes, that runs them off for a year roughly. If you plant annuals, then you are good to go. But for the guy that wants a pasture/hay patch of Tifton 85 Bermuda, he is corkscrewed.

Mark


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

I really was paraphrasing the TAMU system. 
Starting over again, The idea of dragging the "Calving Pasture" number one is to chase the little boogers to the edges of the pasture. Newborn are really pitiful when covered by stinging bighting ants.

As was pointed out the "control' is costly done by the acre. a fence line is a lot less costly than a 10 acre pasture.

Then the Aggie system was & is tin sling the bait Amdro or Logic in the feeding area of the ants. Leave them alone 2 weeks and then treat each individual mound with Orthene. Stink! God does that stuff stink, but it does kill the worker ants..

For the initiated. the ant bite burns like fire, thus the name fire ants.
They can sting a new born calf to death, a very ugly death. They do this fir any new born or hatched on the ground. 
If you are not paying attention where you are standing or sitting you will shortly be stripping off all your clothes, to get away from them. saying they burn like fire is an understatement. What can be fun is handling Sq that are sitting over a ant colony. Even more fun than a bale if grass burrs!


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## Texasmark (Dec 20, 2011)

hay wilson in TX said:


> I really was paraphrasing the TAMU system.
> Starting over again, The idea of dragging the "Calving Pasture" number one is to chase the little boogers to the edges of the pasture. Newborn are really pitiful when covered by stinging bighting ants.
> 
> As was pointed out the "control' is costly done by the acre. a fence line is a lot less costly than a 10 acre pasture.
> ...


When I bought this place in '78 there were no fire ants and we had a nice population of Jack and Cottontail Rabbits, and Bob White Quail. Today the only thing left is Cottontails. Don't know how they survived, but I have been after the ants religiously. I spend hours running them down. Like today, we finally got some pond/pool filling rain and I saw a wad of them floating on it. I went to the shop and mixed up a batch of Bayer kill all and went out and exterminated every one of them......loved every minute of the execution. Took them about 3 minutes to die and the mound that was floating on the water, just dissolved into dead floating ants......YES!!!!!!!!!

Mark


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## Thad (Nov 29, 2011)

I think they showed up here in the mid 80s, south Arkansas. We also had lots of quail. The quail are gone now and all that's left is ants. Five years ago I found a alligator nest. I would go check on it every day, and see if they had hatched. The day they hatched I was there not long after. The baby gaters were trying to get to the water. Fire ants were killing them as fast as they were hatching. I picked up the ones that I could and threw them in, watching out fo momma gater. If ants can kill gaters theres not much that they can't kill.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

Thad,

Something I just remembered....Some of the guys I know over in LA spray a couple of gallons of Molasses per acre on their fields. They say that it is a natural insecticide and it makes the soil microbes happy.The organic folks do use granular molasses for ant control. I've tried spraying liquid molasses in the past but I haven't heard the microbes singing with joy so I don't know if it works, but I do know that I haven't seen any ant beds in my fields. I do get them in my yard and horse paddocks so I may spray some in the spring. I get the stuff in 15 gallon jugs and it's a real PITA to get it in sprayer. Good luck!


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## Thad (Nov 29, 2011)

Thanks to everyone all the info is helpful. A day or so after posting this I desided to rage war on the ants. I went to the co op and bought 40lb of bait. Spent the last two days walking the fields and puting it out. This time of the year u can see the beds good. Hope it worked cus I bet I walked 10 miles.


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## Flashpoint (May 23, 2010)

Only cost effective way i have been able to find is Dawn dish soap. You arent going to get rid of them completely only move them around.
I carry the biggest bottle around i can find and put about a cup on the mound. Soap disolves the exo skeleton of insects and the die.
We use it on the kids baseball fields to move them out of there as well. When it rains it helps even more.Pour a bottle around your house and it will keep them out. Just a thought . Works for me.


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