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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Fire Ants are spawning!!!

So, I looked out my window and saw all these flying bugs going up. A few landed on a screen looking out from the living room and a spider ran over to get the flying thing. After a few turns, the spider jumped back and ran back to it's little corner. It had been stung by the flying Fire Ant it had caught. There's TONS of them!!!

Yup, time to spread the commercial ant killer that sterilizes the ants... Orange Oil kills one mound at a time, but with all the flying queens I've seen today, I don't think it'll be sufficient to effectively control those millions of new queens I just saw flying around this morning!

If you would like some information on Fire Ants and how to control them, the Extension Office has put up a site that has links to several sources for information:

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/fireants/programs.php

We're planning on a "Skip-Swath" broadcast of growth inhibitor & metabolic disruptor baits that the EPA has OK'd for pasture and livestock areas. The chemicals in them are: hydromethylnon (metabolic inhibitor), methoprene (Insect growth inhibitor), pyriproxyfen (Insect growth inhibitor). The products listed with these are Amdro Pro, Extinguish, & Esteem. There may be more, but these are what I've found. We managed to find a product that contains 2 of the 3 chemical compounds and we'll be using a hand spreader this evening to apply to our yard area. Wish us luck!


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