Rain and imported fire ants

So last time I posted about rain and mosquitoes.  I thought I needed to follow up that post with one on rain and imported fire ants, especially since it's still raining.

I've been getting a fair number of inquiries about imported fire ants as of late.  There are usually two categories of questions that I've been fielding:

1. What happens to fire ants when it floods?

2. How do I control all the fire ants that are popping up?

I have covered both of these topics before and they are also covered on other sites with great information, so I will link you to sources for more information.

Question 1

Flooding and fire ants from a previous blog post

Scientific American article on how fire ants form rafts to survive floods

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Disaster Education Network article on fire ants after flooding

Question 2

Do you have fire ants? from a previous blog post- covers different basic types of treatments

Baiting for fire ants in the fall also from a previous blog post

Treating fire ants in certain backyard situations also from a previous blog post- this one covers "odd" areas like veggie gardens, compost bins, etc.

IPM action plan for fire ants from eXtension.org

REMEMBER!! DO NOT TREAT FOR FIRE ANTS WHEN IT IS RAINING!!

Flooding and fire ants

I think saying that weather has been interesting for Central Texas as of late is a bit of an understatement.  We have had so much rain that has led to flooding in multiple areas, causing much loss and devastation. While clean-up efforts are underway for various parts of the state, people need to be aware of fire ant movement.  I know this is one the the last things on everyone's mind when looking at the results of the flooding, but it can be important information for those people who are allergic to fire ants.

We all know that red imported fire ants live in the soil.  What happens to them when we have flooding?  Many people may think that they will drown in the flood water.  Unfortunately this isn't true. 

When fire ant colonies are flooded, the ants form living raft by clinging together.  They float along the water surface until they hit dry ground, a tree, rock or other dry object.  Once they come into contact with a dry area, they emerge from the flood waters and take shelter anywhere possible until they can re-create a colony in the soil.  Living rafts of fire ants can take on different shapes from long ribbons to mats to a ball of ants.

Any floating mats of fire ants that are encountered should not be touched or disturbed.  Do not touch them with sticks or other objects as the fire ants will quickly grab onto the object. If working in flooded areas, make sure to wear appropriate clothing.  Long sleeves, pants and gloves will create more of a barrier against fire ants reaching skin where they will bite and sting.  Be aware that fire ants could be hiding anywhere that was flooded.  Wear gloves when picking up debris or other objects.  You may want to spray insect repellent containing DEET on your shoes and pants.

If you encounter fire ants in debris, use a fast-acting contact pesticide labeled for ants, but make sure the products are not sprayed into water as they can be toxic to aquatic organisms.  Fire ant baits should not be used after flooding because many of them are slow acting and colonies will be disorganized and not foraging for food.

Also be aware that fire ants may be showing up in areas that may have not had them previously or areas that were treated.

All Bugs Good & Bad Webinar Series- Fire Ant Management Using Baits

When: Friday, March 6, 2015 at 1PM CST
Link: http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/fireant
Cost: FREE

Learn how to make the biology of fire ants work for you not against you. This webinar presented by Dr. Lawrence "Fudd" Graham from Auburn University will discuss fire ant baits and other control methods.  It will also provide the latest information on the Pseudacteon phorid flies, natural enemies of fire ants.  Moderated by Dani Carroll and Bethany O'Rear, Regional Extension Agents, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and Vicky Bertagnolli-Heller, Extension Agent and Master Gardener Coordinator, Clemson University.  Click here to login as a guest and participate in the live event.   Note: on March 6, the link to the live webinar opens about 15 minutes before the webinar.  If you log in earlier, you will get an error message. 

For more webinars in this series, see All Bugs Good and Bad 2015 Webinar Series. The webinars are brought to you by the following eXtension Communities of Practice: Imported Fire Ants, and Urban IPM; and by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and the University of Georgia Center for Urban Agriculture. 


If you missed the previous webinar on Pesticide strategy- the good, the bad the ugly, you can still view it from the link below by clicking Watch recording in the top right corner.
https://learn.extension.org/events/1864#.VOdGJCzcBNg

FREE Webinars! Alien Invasions! Zombie! Decapitation! (it is getting close to Halloween.....)

Did you miss the webinar from this month?  It's right in theme with the month of October and even has zombies!

All Bugs Good and Bad Webinar Series

Alien Invasions, Zombies Underfoot and Billions of Decapitated Fire Ants

This webinar was presented by Dr. Sandford Porter, a Research Entomologist in the Imported Fire Ants and Household Insects group of USDA ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology.  It was moderated by Nelson Wynn, Regional Extension Agent, Alabama Cooperative Extension Service.

To watch the recorded webinar, go here and click the watch recording button on the top right.

The next webinar will be held on Friday, November 7, 2014 at 1PM CDT.  The topic is a good one entitled "Where have all the honey bees gone? Hope for the future."

Why do we have fewer honeybees these days?  What caused the decline?  What can we do to help?  These questions and more will be answered in this webinar presented by Dr. John Skinner, a Professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at the University of Tennessee. Moderated by Sallie Lee, Regional Extension Agent, Alabama Cooperative Extension System.  Click here to login as a guest and participate in the live event.  For more webinars in this series, see All Bugs Good and Bad 2014 Webinar Series. The webinars are brought to you by the following eXtension Communities of Practice: Imported Fire Ants, Urban IPM, Bee Health, Invasive Species and Gardens and Landscapes; and by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. 

Again, if you want to see the FREE bee webinar, then click here on Friday, November 7th at 1PM CDT.  If you can't make it then, it will be recorded for viewing later.

New media coverage and a (taped) FREE webinar!

Media

In case you quite haven't gotten enough from me lately, I thought I would share media that I have been involved with lately.

I did a story with KXAN on juniper budworm- you can find that clip here.  Some of the information that I spoke about was not covered in the piece, so you can get the full skinny here.

I was also recently inteviewed on Central Texas Gardener where I discuss a variety of things- you can find that video here.  You can find the clip on their YouTube channel (which you should subscribe to if you like gardening).  You can find my previous interview that covered succulent pests here (I miss my purple hair....).

Here is a link to the story on mosquitoes that ran on Fox7Austin.

Here is a link on AgriLife Today on juniper budworms.

FREE webinar

For those of you that missed the webinar on fire ant management last Friday, it is now posted for your viewing pleasure at

https://learn.extension.org/events/1372

We are taking next month off because of conflicts with the 4^th of July.  But All Bugs Good and Bad will be back on August 1, with “Minimize Mosquito Problems” presented by Molly Keck: https://learn.extension.org/events/1373

More about the All Bugs Good and Bad Webinar series can be found at: https://learn.extension.org/events/1373

FREE fire ant webinar on Friday (6/6/14)

Free eXtension.org Fire Ant Webinar Friday | June 6, 2014

On June 6 AllBugs Good and Bad Webinar on Fire Ant Management, set for 2 pm EDT. 

The webinar will be presented by Wizzie Brown, an IPM specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and moderated by Mike McQueen.  You will find links below that you can include in Facebook and Twitter posts. If you haven't promoted this month's webinar on social media, please do so! 

 

 

 

 

 

On the day of the webinar, log in at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/fireant as a guest and enter your name. This will allow you to watch the webinar.

 

For a quick way to add this to your calendar, or more information about this webinar, please visit http://learn.extension.org/events/1372 

 

Look for updates on Imported Fire Ant Social media sites that could easily be shared to your facebook and twitter pages. (Facebook:www.facebook.com/fireantinfo ; Twitter: @fireantinfo ; Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/exfireants/fire-ants/)

Fire Ant Webinar- FREE!

Guess who is up next month for the All Bugs Good and Bad Webinar Series?  That's right ladies and gentlemen, it's me. So if you haven't heard me talk fire ants previously or want a refresher course, log on.

Here's the skinny:

All Bugs Good and Bad Webinar Series: Fire Ant Management

Learn how to manage your fire ant problem in this webinar by Wizzie Brown (this page has an awful, old picture of me...MUST get it updated soon!), Program Specialist - IPM, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. You don't have to spend a lot of time and money to control fire ants.  A little knowledge about how fire ants live will make you see how easy it is to control them.  Moderated by Mike McQueen, Regional Extension Agent, Alabama Cooperative Extension System and Amanda Tedrow, County Extension Agent, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Click here to login as a guest and participate in the live event.  For more webinars in this series, see All Bugs Good and Bad 2014 Webinar Series. The webinars are brought to you by the following eXtension Communities of Practice: Imported Fire Ants, Urban IPM, Bee Health and Invasive Species; and by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

 

The webinar will be held on Friday, June 6, 2014 at 1PM CDT.  You can login for the webinar here.

Remember, the webinars are FREE and they will be recorded so if you miss it then you can watch it later.

Fire ant home remedy webinar- follow up

It's been two weeks since my webinar on fire ant home remedies.  If you missed it because you had other pressing things to do that day- which I don't know what can be more important than listening to me rattle on about fire ants- the webinar was recorded.  You can find a link to the webinar session here:
http://www.extension.org/pages/66408/dont-bug-me-webinar-series-2013

It's right under the February 1st, 2013 Fire Ant Home Remedy section.

I hope it went well.  I think webinars are much harder to carry off because you have no audience to react with.  I felt like I was droning on and on, but I did give information on all the home remedies I have tested to date.  I also talked about naturally derived methods of managing fire ants.  Give it a listen!

The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown

Apparently the local fire ants have decided to celebrate fire ant awareness week by attacking my child. He got stung on Monday twice by the little boogers. As soon as this rain is gone, it's on! Those fire ants will be going down when I bait my yard.

The boy of course was too busy transferring toys from the sandbox to his kiddie pool to really notice that he even got stung. Still, I know what those ants did. The gauntlet has been thrown. Fire ants- 1, Wizzie- 0 (for now....).

Do you have fire ants?

Well...boogers! I was halfway done with my post and Mozilla crashed and my entry disappeared. Oh well, I guess I'll have to start my witty banter again.

It rained. In Austin, it rained. It even rained at my house in Manor which NEVER happens even when it rains in Austin, Round Rock, Pflugerville, etc. etc. I think that Manor has some weird Bermuda Triangle thing with weather so it never rains there...it all just goes around us.

Anyway, along with my plants gurgling with relief from being watered (I've been promoting natural selection in my yard....whatever survives without a lot of watering gets to, well, survive) I've noticed some fire ant activity. The mountain laurel is blooming, the fire ants are becoming active...all we need is for bluebonnets to crop up and it will officially be spring in Central Texas.

So what are your option for managing fire ants?
1. Broadcast bait over your yard.
Fire ant baits are a defatted corn cob grit coated in soybean oil that has the active ingredient- what kills the fire ants- dissolved in it. Most baits are put out at a very small rate (1-1.5 pounds per acre) and should be broadcast using a hand held spreader. Of course, people often feel like they haven't put out enough bait when they apply it properly, so they wind up putting out more bait until it looks like it snowed. Please be sure to read the product label to apply bait at the proper rate and with the proper equipment.

2. Broadcast a contact insecticide over your entire yard.
These products typically come in a granular form that needs to be watered into the soil once it's been applied. Many people get these products confused with baits, so again, read the product label for proper application instructions. With these products, the chemical is watered into the soil and the fire ants come into contact with the active ingredient when they excavate the soil to make tunnels and the mound.

3. Treat mound individually with the method of your choosing.
There are numerous products labelled for treating fire ant mounds. There are also numerous "home remedies" for treating fire ants. While some of these might actually work (like boiling water), many do not. Some home remedies may cause the fire ants to abandon the mound, but usually a new mound pops up 1-2 feet away. So, if you choose to treat individual mounds, choose your method wisely. Also, understand that treating fire ant mounds individually can be more time consuming, more costly and place more chemicals into the environment than broadcast baiting.

4. Two step- broadcast bait and follow up with individual mound treatments for mounds in sensitive areas.
Since many fire ant baits take anywhere from 2-6 weeks to see results, you may want to utilize the strategy of broadcasting a bait followed by individual mound treatments. Instead of treating all fire ant mounds, you can target mounds that are in sensitive areas (near animal kennels or where children play) or that need to be taken care of quickly.

For more information on these treatment methods you can read the publication Fire Ant Control The Two-Step Method and Other Approaches.

Field trial for fire ants

Well, I'm a bit off my schedule for attempting to post each Friday. I'm not going to beat myself up too much as I was working, but fortunately, it was outside in the wonderful sunshine instead of behind my desk in a drably painted office. Speaking of which...I should paint my office a brighter color...maybe lavender.....wonder if I could get away with it?

Anyway, on Friday I drug my husband with me to set up a field trial outside the Extension office in Georgetown. It's always nice to have help when doing field work and Alan is always a big help. He's especially attentive now, sometimes to the point of being annoying, as I'm pregnant and he doesn't want me lifting heavy objects, being within 5 miles of a pesticide, etc. Not that I had plans of handling pesticide, my doctor would be very upset as I was told this was a big no-no last visit. And yes, you heard correctly, there's going to a little Brown soon to terrorize the planet...prepare yourselves!

Back to the field work....I'm expanding upon a trial that I carried out last fall testing aspartame (the artificial sweetener) for managing individual fire ant mounds. I'm sure some of you have read on the Internet or got an email saying how it was developed as an ant poison. Well, I'm now carrying out field trials to see if it actually will get rid of the little buggers. The trial from last year showed that the aspartame did nothing to kill the ants- the aspartame treated plots showed no significant difference from the control plots where no treatment was done. This year, after treating with aspartame, I watered it into the mound since some organic sites say that this stimulates the product to kill the ants. We'll see what happens.....

By the way, if you're a nerd like me or just want some very dry reading material, you can find the aspartame field trial plus all of the field trials carried out by the fire ant group here:

http://fireant.tamu.edu/research/results_all.cfm

It's the one titled "2007 Urban IPM Handbook". It's a pdf file that's quite large so it may take some time to download.

Red Imported Fire Ants...are they active?

I've been receiving numerous calls lately about fire ants. Yes, the mounds have been popping up, especially after the rain we had recently. People have been using fire ant bait, but are frustrated that the fire ants are not dying. So what could be the problem? First of all, check your fire ant bait. Since bait is a food item, albeit for the ants and not us, it can go rancid. Smell the bait to see if it has gone bad. Fresh bait should either have no smell or a light, slightly nutty corn-like smell. If the bait is rancid you will most certainly know....it smells....bad. If the bait is rancid, you should buy new bait and dispose properly of the old, rancid bait. Secondly, before you broadcast bait, you need to make sure that the fire ants are actively foraging for food. Many times, they may be active excavating their mound, but the won't be picking up food. To check if fire ants are foraging, place a small amount of bait, a piece of hotdog (the cheaper the brand, the better) or a potato chip near a mound. Leave the food item for 15-30 minutes, then come back to see if the ants are picking up the food and taking it back to the mound. If they are, you're good to go forward with your baiting. Lastly, be patient when using baits. Depending on which bait you use, it can take several days to several weeks to see results.