Fire ants eat protein and avoid sugar. You might try spraying molasses (adjust your hose end sprayer to 2-3 ounces per gallon). Hit the individual mounds hard but spray everything so the ants can't find a new place to dig. I think the reason this works is the ants rely on not having any sugar in their food supply. When you spray, they cannot avoid it and it spoils their food.

What do you mean by bare patches? Do you water regularly? St Aug should not have any bare patches. Before you even think of fertilizing you should be watering deeply once per week (for about an hour per zone) and mowing at the highest setting on the mower. Those apply whether you use the dope or not. Once you have that going you can use the coffee grounds at 10-20 (dry) pounds per 1,000 square feet). If you are not watering then you need to consider a different grass type.

There are new products on the market that are made from cedar oil and are supposed to be effective against all nuisance insects....including fire ants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Lawns for America

There is also a product from Green Light containing 'spinosad.' It is an organic bait that seems to work quickly.

The best place to learn about Fire Ant control is at this Texas A & M web site. Every place I have seen that has information about them has copied what these people have written.
Any pesticide that says it will kill al lthe insects in your yard cannot be an acceptable organic pesticide even though it says it will not harm toads, frogs, etc. all of which wil leave your yard if that product is used because then they will have no food to eat.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fire Ant Control

Thanks to all who have responded, your expertise is much appreciated. I wanted to respond to several of the messages.

DCHALL- Throughout the yard, there are areas (maybe not truly "patches") where it has just has not greened up yet and appears dead (this is interspersed with green grass stemming from the "runners"). I am not sure if I waited too long this season to begin watering and I am seeing drought damage, but for the most part, the yard is beginning to green. I have always mowed at a very high setting and I think I am watering correctly. I have an automated sprinkler system and all of the zones overlap. I water each zone once a week at between 30-35 minutes a zone. I understand that this is on the low side, but I make a conscious choice to try and conserve water as best I can without totally sacrificing the lawn (not just for environmental concerns, but to keep my utility bill under $300 a month). There have always been spots in the lawn that the St. Aug just fears to tread and is mostly just patches of weed. When we bought the home 2 1/2 years ago, the previous owners had several large dogs whom they did not pick up after....ever, and the lawn was in miserable shape. They did nothing in the way of lawn care except an occasional mow and it has taken me this long to get it into some reasonable shape. That being said, one side of our lawn (our home divides the yard) has never really been more than a weed desert (this is also where most of the fire ants are situated). Another patch is where chinch bugs got a start before I could identify and get to them (it is my understanding that this area will never recover, but it is small). I am familiar with the Green Light product and was actually leaning toward this. Thanks! BTW Mr. Hall, I very much enjoyed your member page!

KIMMSR- Thank you for the very informative site. I have seen your posts on other forums and you always provide very well researched and thought out responses.

jefferson, can you post a picture of the areas where the grass refuses to grow but the weeds do? If you can provide a link to an online .jpg photo, I can make the picture show.

Are these areas high traffic? Your watering and mowing seem good so I'm puzzled as to the coverage/weed issue. So far I'm not worried about parts of my lawn that are not growing. In a week or two all will be growing. I'm not a stickler for having the first green lawn or extending my mowing out into November. I know that when it does turn green, it will be greener and lusher than most lawns in the neighborhood.

Sometimes weeds need to be pulled. With the exception of dandelions, broadleaf weeds will almost always choke out St Augustine. Even henbit and dichondra, pitifully weak plants, will choke out St Augustine.

I'm linking to an article on phorid flies. They have really found a home in Texas. Fire ants are only a fraction of the issue they were 10 years ago. I attribute that to the import of the phorid flies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Phorid flies - fire ant predators