I know your dedication to gardening and enviroment so I will spend extra time in hopes of winning a new convert for my campaign to eradicate Fire Ants while bringing Horned Lizards back in Texas. When Fire Ants first appeared tons of bait was broadcast from airplanes. The bait dealt a deadly blow to Red Harvesters while leaving FAs unchecked. Red Harvesters are the Horned Lizard's primary diet so lizards also disappeared. If bait actually worked we would have been rid of FAs long ago ago. Timing is everything for my method using about equal labor and far less expense but most important is far more friendly to enviroment. The weapon is any insecticide which is deadly to ants or termites. I've used a different ones off the shelf and most were effective. It doen't need residual quility,in fact it;s best if it doesn't when taking other insects in consideration. If instructions are for yard and foundation treatment, double reccomended amount of insectacide to water. If instructions are for below ground application or treating ground contact wood,use only reccomended or less insectacide. Timeing rely's on weather conditions when ants move eggs and winged ants into freshly constructed above ground mound. During typical Tx summers it most often that occure;s briefly in early morning following heavy rain. There's far more opertunities from early Fall to late spring so I seldom mess with them during Summer. When the mound is kicked open the white eggs and winged ants are easy to see and you will notice a mad scramble to move eggs back insjde and below ground while winged ants wander aimlessly like they don't know how to save themselves. Opening a single mound is only done to see if timing is right and then only until you become familar with the behavior. DO NOT DESTURB MOUNDS BEFORE OR FOLLOWING TREATMENT. However you can desturb mounds after a couple days to guage how succesful the treatment was. If you see more than 3 ants the treatment was less successful than it should have been. After 3 or 4 days it isn't uncommon to see a new mound within 10 feet about 5% the size of origional. Sometimes thats scouts that were away and/or lucky escapees but they can't reproduce. Just in case a queen made it to the new mound mark small mounds you come accross to make them easy to find next time conditions are right for treatment. Treatment calls for pumping sprayer to max pressure and setting noozle to stream. On a half basketball size mound,punture it in about 6-8 places injecting 1-2 tablespoons in each place then a quick circle just outside base of mound for any little guys that dodged spray inside and exit looking for something to sting. The amount of insectacide used on an acre is a fraction of what it would be if spraying ground as most often done. The benifit of not broadcasting is enormous from the standpoint of non target bugs that are spared. If Red Harvesters previously inhabited your land they will eventually return when a bred queen builds a nest that might go unnoticed for months while she populates the nest. Had you been broadcasting the unnoticed queen would have been killed,not to mention other things. If Horned lizards were once common on your property they will soon follow,,,,,,,,,,,,,if we win enough converts because unlike the harvester coloney that can exist on 5 acres while surounding land is poisoned,lizards require larger range. Once eastablised you will not have FAs near a harvester colony. If you wish,you can use Amdro alongside but imo it isn't neccessary plus it will kill foraging Harvesters. I wish you luck and would love to hear what you think after a few months. I'm no tree hugger but this is one of a few environmental issues I'm passionate about.

Let's be clear. There are not and have never been ANY Horned Lizards at this site. So that's not an issue. Also, Amdro is actually a very inexpensive way to kill fire ants. A pound of the stuff is $12, and it takes a teaspoon to kill a mound. It works great. The issue is that it expires quickly. I'm willing to believe that any insecticide that kills ants could work. But again, the issue is which have long shelf lives. Those shelf lives are not advertised prominently on the labels. I suppose it would be useful if you wanted to recommend such an insecticide with a long lifetime.

Also, I'm not broadcasting this stuff, so there is plenty of space for Red Harvesters to thrive. If I kill 1% of the red harvesters along with a fire ant mound, that would work for me. I should add that Horned Lizards are not considered a threatened population.

Wow,I'm surprised anything I said is cause for retort. Oboviously I had you confused with someone else but rather than delete my post I'll leave it for consideration by others battling Fire Ants.

" daninthedirt (USDA 8b, HZ10, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)Original Author2 hours ago "

" Let's be clear. There are not and have never been ANY Horned Lizards at this site. So that's not an issue. Also, Amdro is actually a very inexpensive way to kill fire ants. A pound of the stuff is $12, and it takes a teaspoon to kill a mound. It works great. The issue is that it expires quickly. I'm willing to believe that any insecticide that kills ants could work. But again, the issue is which have long shelf lives. Those shelf lives are not advertised prominently on the labels. I suppose it would be useful if you wanted to recommend such an insecticide with a long lifetime.

Also, I'm not broadcasting this stuff, so there is plenty of space for Red Harvesters to thrive. If I kill 1% of the red harvesters along with a fire ant mound, that would work for me. I should add that Horned Lizards are not considered a threatened population. "

We use bifen/bifenthrin granules that appear to have a recommended "use by" life of three years - think the liquid versions are considerably shorter depending on storage conditions. We use it to spot treat mounds only, though would consider broadcasting if we ever had a flea infestation in the yard. A 10lb bag usually lasts 18 to 24 months for our urban lot - so know two years on the shelf is no problem. It's also fairly inexpensive and readily available. A single treatment can work well on small mounds or larger ones while they're active above ground as Klem1 described. Deep large mounds rarely return in place after treatment, but often have some smaller mounds spring up in the area from escapees that have to be subsequently treated.

Thank you bostedo. That sounds interesting. Now, where do you get bifen granules? I see that I can get them online, but shipping charges would be a drag.

Klem, that wasn't a retort. It was mainly just saying that while your thoughts are appreciated, you weren't really answering my question.

May be tougher to find locally while the big box garden centers are in Christmas mode, though this is the one I usually get in season: Eliminator Ant Flea Tick Killer.

Believe Ortho BugClear and Lawn Insect Killer Granules both have Bifenthrin as the only active ingredient in different strengths. I've not used any like Roundup Bug Destroyer that mix Bifen with other active ingredients.

Oh... should have mentioned these mound treatments should be lightly watered for best and most enduring results. Not an issue on our small city lot, but could be a disadvantage with land beyond the reach of irrigation or a long haul with a loaded watering can. Just a consideration.

Thank you very much. Looks like BugClear is locally available. I'll go check it out.

I should add that on the Ortho site, this is listed at 0.,2% Bifenthrin, but it says explicitly "The fast-acting insect killer starts to work in minutes (except against fire ants) ...".

https://www.ortho.com/en-us/products/bugs/ortho-bugclear-lawn-insect-killer1

Should I be concerned about that exception? I guess I don't need quickness.

Ah, let me add, hours later, that I found Ortho Fire Ant Killer, which is 0.2% Bifenthrin, and it's right up the street at Home Depot. So Bifenthrin IS specifically sold for fire ants, and by your expertise, has a long shelf life. FWIW, doing a little research on Bifenthrin shelf-life, I see that it is listed as being good for 3-years. Yay! Bye bye Amdro.

It seems that after applying granules to a mound, it is indeed best to drench the mound to soak it in, as you recommended.

It does seem to take about a day for all motion on a treated fire ant hill to cease. The slower action is probably one reason for the small "escapee" hills often seen after a large mound is destroyed; not much of a problem because there's usually only one or two new hills that are easily eliminated by a single additional treatment due to their smaller size. Though we did have one well established hill (3ft X 1.5 ft) hidden at the base of a shrub that took three additional rounds to eliminate all the survivors.

What I find particularly helpful is that once a mound is treated, the ants will not (or rarely?) return to that spot for at least the season. This is because Bifenthrin is nearly immobile in our clay soil and likely has a half-life of 100+ days in our conditions.

Also, the brand we're currently using is only 0.1%. Might see a bit different results at twice that concentration.

Well, that's another advantage of Bifenthrin. Hydramethylnon, which is the active ingredient in Amdro, has a lifetime of just a week or so in sunlight. Bifenthrin in sunlight is good for 100+ days, as you say. Hydramethylnon doesn't get bound up, but it's not particularly soluble, so at least it stays in one place.