How To Defeat Troublesome Fire Ants

Nobody likes the thought of discovering fire ants on their property. These troublesome pests are well known for their aggressive nature and painful sting. Many people suffer from hives, itching, swelling, and other severe allergic reactions if bitten, so it’s important that you do what you can to prevent these pests from invading your home.
Spring is a favorite season for fire ants, and once they move onto your property, it can be difficult to get rid of the colony. Use the following methods to take back control and defeat those annoying fire ants for good. More here @ http://sa-pestcontrol.com/

Eliminate Food Sources

To avoid attracting fire ants to your property, the first thing you should do is eliminate food sources. Fire ants spend a lot of time searching for food, much like any other insect pest, and these foraging activities can even cause them to come inside buildings.
Keep your yard as clean as possible, avoiding leaving out trash or food that could attract ants. You should also keep shrubs pruned away from your home, as they could use these greens as a bridge to enter your property while avoiding treated areas.

Target Individual Mounds

If you come across fire ants in your yard, then one way to tackle the problem is to deal with their mounds individually. Doing so is considered to be the most environmentally friendly way to address the issue and will limit treated areas.
When applying mound treatment, the aim is to kill the queen as well as the worker ants. As she is the only one who lays the eggs, this is the ant you need to focus on. You can either use insecticidal bait or a liquid or dust insecticide formulation. When applying fire ant insecticide, always follow the instructions on the label.
You should attempt to thoroughly drench the mound if applying liquid treatments for maximum effectiveness. If the drench does not eradicate all the ants in the colony, then you may notice that surviving ants build smaller mounds close to the parent colony over the next several days following treatment. Keep an eye out for new mounts and treat these immediately.
Baits are an alternative method to liquid treatments, but they are somewhat slow acting. The good thing is that they are easier to apply than mound drenches and tend to achieve 80-90% fire ant control. Always follow label instructions and sprinkle the bait around the mounds, rather than on top. The best time to do this is in the early evening.
You may want to follow the Two-Step method when covering larger areas. This approach involves using the fire ant bait across the whole area affected first, and then following this up with individual mound treatments.

Work with Your Neighbors

Fire ants are known to travel from one garden to the next, so if you want to help prevent these pests from invading your yard, then try to work with your neighbors and implement fire ant prevention and control methods.
Ideally, you should all be prepared to tackle any issues as soon as they are spotted. Work together to implement preventative measures and consider chipping in to hire a professional to treat the neighborhood.

So much for DIY, call the professional for effective Fire Ant Control in San Antonio