September is the best time of the year to treat fire ant issues. By handling fire ant issues in the autumn you can help eliminate those furious insect biting ants and have fun in your yard next spring. Control programs use IPM or integrated pest management approach that use a combination of prevention and pesticide methods that are effective while being cost-effective and going easy on mother nature. While red ants have few predators, the Phorid fly have been established as a biological control. Phorid flies “parasitize” fire ants by depositing eggs which hatch into larvae that pupate inside the fire ant’s head capsule. But, you will still need to apply pesticides where fire ants are a problem. One method includes broadcasting fire-ant bait over an entire yard, using a hand-held seed spreader. Baits are slow-acting and require weeks to months to achieve 80% to 90% control. The second method is to treat individual mounds with dust products or liquid drenches, these generally eliminate mounds within a few hours.
