Over the next several days we will receive rains that will waterlog our home lawns and fill all of the available space in the soil with water and little oxygen. Is this good for our turf? Well no, but a plant can temporarily shut down and live. The problem with this flooding is that everything that inhabits the soil gets driven out. The biggest one is fire ants.
During a period with very little rainfall these ants will drive deep into the ground where there is adequate moisture and temperatures are cooler. That means that you may not necessarily see a mound where these colonies are living. Unfortunately when the rains do decide to fall, these colonies surface and are forced to build on top of the ground or in severe cases move to higher ground such as your home or vehicle.
To control fire ants in your lawn you will need to use granular baits, mound treatments and/or broadcast treatments. Baits will help control 80-90 percent of the fire ants in your lawn and those mounds that appear later can be managed with a mound treatment. Just remember during a dry spell it could take some time for the ants to find and use the baits as they will not visit the surface frequently. To increase the use of these treatments also remember that foraging (uptake) increases as the temperatures fall moving into the night.
Fire ants will not be completely controlled but you can get awful close using these methods 1, 2, maybe 3 times a year if you read and follow all labeled instructions. If you want specifics on treatments, talk about products or more information in general feel free to give me a call or email.
Contact Alex Deason at (662) 887-4601 or email at a.deason@msstate.edu
