Are Fire Ants Holding your Yard Under Siege?
If you’re like me and most of my friends, you had a bad run-in with fire ants sometime in your early childhood. Much like touching a hot stove, that pain and panic stuck with you long into adulthood, especially when you notice your own kid playing in the yard, headed straight for a fire ant bed.
Once fire ants show up in your lawn, they don’t plan on leaving.
Fire ants aren’t native to the United States. Ships from South America brought them over in the 1930s while making port in Mobile, Alabama. An aggressive competitor species, their presence crept up the east coast and all the way across the country to southern California. Fire ants are most prevalent in the Southeast, where winters are mild and the soil is more favorable to building their mounds.
Though a very small portion of the population (about one percent) are extra-sensitive to fire ants, their stings hurt so bad because fire ants act in unison. That means if a person’s leg is covered in ants, and that person jerks or moves abruptly, all the fire ants sting at once. Unlike other ants, fire ants don’t bite—they sting and inject a toxic venom.
Eliminating fire ant nests on your own can be like playing whack-a-mole. These ants constantly migrate from one mound to the next, and at the first sign of threat, they escort the queen away from their colony to start a new one.
Maybe you saw your dad or grandad treat fire ant beds by pouring liquid insecticide onto the mound—maybe he even used gasoline. Please don’t do this. The drench method usually proves futile, and if you use a substance like gasoline, you’re only adding another dangerous, harmful element to your lawn. If these insects have made their way into your home, treatment will require a different approach entirely.
The only effective method for controlling fire ants is to treat your entire lawn. You can try this yourself, too, but over-the-counter insecticides require several repeat applications. Even if you have a small yard, it’s a big job to treat it thoroughly.
Leave fire ant extermination to the professionals.
Lawn & Pest Solutions has the technology and expertise to provide season-long control with just two applications—one in the spring, the other in the fall. When beginning a Fire Ant 360 program, it takes about two weeks to see the full effects of the initial treatment. At that point, a Lawn & Pest Solutions technician will return to gauge the treatment’s effectiveness and apply more insecticide if needed.
By then, your ant population should be decimated. However, if it takes extra visits to clear your yard of fire ants, we’ll apply those treatments at no extra charge as part of our Fire Ant 360 program. Click here to read more about Fire Ant 360 and browse other Lawn & Pest Solutions programs.
Oh, and did I mention the bait we use is as safe as it is effective? In fact, it’s active ingredient is the same chemical used in topical flea treatments for dogs.
Your yard should be a safe place for fun and recreation—not a mine field of fire ant mounds. Let us help you achieve the lawn of your dreams. Get an an estimate today!
