For more than a decade, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service integrated pest management program specialist Wizzie Brown has been engaged in a community-wide battle against one of the state’s most persistent pests – the fire ant.
Since 2005, Brown and residents of the Wood Glen community in Round Rock, north of Austin, have collaborated in a neighborhood fire ant program to control the proliferation of fire ants, eliminate their unsightly mounds and keep them from biting area residents.
Brown said she gave a fire ant control demonstration to the residents on the “two-step” treatment method, which is the agency’s preferred fire ant control method. The first step involves semi-annual broadcast applications of fire ant bait. The second step involves follow-up treatments of individual mounds or “nuisance” ant colonies, such as those in sensitive or high-traffic areas.
“The two-step method is less labor-intensive, less toxic and more environmentally friendly than most other means of do-it-yourself fire ant control,” Brown said.
Learn more about the Two-step Fire Ant Treatment Method
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