Suburban Home Lawn and fire ant controls

This was originally posted by me on the Fort Bend County Master Gardener Blog on 22 December 2009.

Over the past four years, I have waged a continual battle against the bane of my existence – imported red fire ants. In this conflict, I have received numerous bites and have reached the conclusion that one of us must go. To this end, I have tried three separate commercial products to see which weapon will be the main tool in my arsenal of fire ant destruction.

Disclaimer: I am not a research scientist with unlimited funds. I am using only easily obtainable commercial products. And since I don’t receive any funding from any company, I will only talk about the active ingredient in these products.

The three active ingredients in fire ant bait which I used were Spinosad, Permethrin, and Hydramethylnon. For each, I followed the usage directions on the containers and judged the effectiveness of the ingredient by seeing how quickly the mounds disappeared when treating the individual mounds and, when broadcasting, how long the fire ants remained absent from my yard.

The first one I tried was Hydramethylnon. This product was effective in treating individual mounds within 72 hours. The broadcast method seemed to keep the ants away for only 2 to 2 1/2 months. I continued this treatment for about 9 months total but was disappointed when the fire ant mounds kept returning.

The next test involved Spinosad. This product eliminated my mounds within 48 hours although I found that adding a bit more than recommended resulted in mounds dying out in as little as 24 hours. By broadcasting Spinosad over my yard, I was delighted to see no new mounds for 4 months and usually fewer mounds than before.

The last test I made using Permethrin. I hesitated to use this product since it also eliminates many other insects. However, it was advertised as a fire ant bait so I decided to give it a try. By adding this product to the fire ant mounds and watering it in well, I followed the directions explicitly. However, the fire ants either moved to a close-by location or seemed to be totally unaffected by the product. I broadcast the product over my yard and found it to be totally ineffective in fire ant control.

In summary, the Spinosad product performed the best for me. Although it’s initial cost is higher than the other two products, I found that I didn’t have to apply it as often.

Your results may be different than mine. But I will stay with Spinosad for now.

This review does not necessarily reflect the views of the Fort Bend County Master Gardeners, Inc., the Fort Bend County AgriLife Extension Office, nor the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.