FIRE ANTS2: Do home fire ant treatments work? 
Find out on Passport to Texas.

This is Passport to Texas

The impact of red imported fire ants in Texas is 
$1.2 billion annually. These insects wreak havoc in 
urban, agricultural and wildlife areas and pose 
threats to plants and animals. Because of that -- they 
must die.

12 -- Generally what we recommend is a broadcast bait 
over the whole entire yard in the spring and in the fall, 
and that dramatically cuts down on the amount of fire 
ants that you see popping up in-between those times.

Entomologist, Elizabeth "Wizzie" Brown is with 
AgriLife Extension. She says broadcast baits take 
time, but are effective. Impatient and desperate 
homeowners have tried homemade treatments for 
what they hope will be quicker kills.

28 -- Club soda was a big one. People were asking me 
about this, so that's when I did my testing and it didn't 
work. Used coffee grounds are another one -- a lot of 
people were using that to treat fire ant mounds; Again, I 
didn't find that that one worked. Ground cinnamon ... .. 
This year I'm hoping to test cayenne pepper and oak ash. 
I had somebody bring oak ash to me; he says that he 
uses it all the time and that he doesn't have any fire ants 
and so we're going to test that one out and see what 
happens.

We have links to information about managing this 
biting pest at passporttotexas.org.

That's our show ... For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm 
Cecilia Nasti. 






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