Red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta Buren) are aggressive, reddish brown to black ants which build dome-shaped mounds of soil when they construct their nests. Fire ants prefer to construct mounds in sunny, open areas of your lawn, but are not restricted to these areas. Their mounds might be found in rotting logs, under buildings and pavement, round trees and stumps, and even inside. Powerful control of red imported fire ants is dependent on applying treatment at the right time of day and in ideal conditions.
Best Time of Year
In Mediterranean climates, winters are wet and summers can be hot and dry, so use of therapy products for crimson fire ant control are usually ineffective because they either gets washed off in the wintertime, or so the ants don’t come in contact with them because it’s too hot for the ants to appear. Spring and fall applications are more effective because fire ants are more active during the drier, more moderate temperature conditions present in these times of year. At the spring and summertime, the queens are also busy laying eggs, which take 20 to 45 days to develop from egg to adult worker ant. Once a colony is established, one queen can lay over 2,000 eggs each day, so eliminating the colony before she can reproduce or prior to the workers reach maturity is vital to control.
Greatest Time of Day
Many insecticide treatments are most effective when implemented when fire ants are foraging, but it can be tricky to determine exactly what time of day this will be, because their foraging time depends on temperature. Fire ants typically forage when temperatures are between 65 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. During the hot, dry summer months, fire ants go deep below ground during the day, so insecticide treatments are more effective when implemented in late afternoon or early evenings. At the spring and fall, put on the treatment on cold, dry mornings.
Timing Broadcast Bait Software
Apply broadcast bait applications around your lawn, and foraging fire ants may take the bait and feed it into the remainder of the colony. Baits should be applied to the grass and ground near the time ants are actively foraging, and the ground is dry and rain is not forecasted for at least 24 hours. The time of day fire ants are actively foraging may vary, but you can ascertain it by spreading the lure in a small area. When the ants are foraging, they will begin to take out the bait within 30 minutes of program. This means that you’ve discovered the ideal time to use the bait all around your lawn.
Timing Individual Mound Treatments
Individual mound treatments rely on killing the queen to get rid of the entire colony. If the queen does not die, she will lay eggs and the colony can finally recover even if you kill the worker ants. Individual mount therapies, which are generally employed as drenches or granules, are best implemented when the ants are within the mound. To be effective, drenches and granules must get in touch with a vast majority of these ants. Individual mound treatments are best implemented on cool, sunny mornings. In these conditions, the queen and her employee ants will look for warmth, which they discover just under the top of the mound where the sunlight is warming the ground. Drenches or granules implemented during hot, dry weather will not contact a substantial enough portion of the colony because the ants will probably be deep within escaping the heat.