Fire Ants (neighborhoods, subdivision, move to)

[trail rider]

Are fire ants a real problem or more of a nuisance? Do they bother the horses or dogs. Are they easy to control?

[momof2dfw]

If you keep your yard treated it is not a problem. Don't go stepping in an ant pile when your out at the park or such. After periods of heavy rain (what is that anyway???) they will come up and you will see huge mounds. If you are in a subdivision if all of the neighbors treat their yards at the same time it will keep them from going back and forth. You treat one week and they move to your neighbors yard. They treat and they come back to you and so on. Texas A&M actual has a program where they come out to neighborhoods and help organize a neighborhood treatment (it has to be done in the spring) to rid them from the entire area. They have said if this is done every year that after a few years they are no longer in that area. ??? Worth trying to have done. Don't know about horses but my dogs do not seem to have a problem w/ fire ants.

[jeanniershirley]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

If you keep your yard treated it is not a problem. Don't go stepping in an ant pile when your out at the park or such. After periods of heavy rain (what is that anyway???) they will come up and you will see huge mounds. If you are in a subdivision if all of the neighbors treat their yards at the same time it will keep them from going back and forth. You treat one week and they move to your neighbors yard. They treat and they come back to you and so on. Texas A&M actual has a program where they come out to neighborhoods and help organize a neighborhood treatment (it has to be done in the spring) to rid them from the entire area. They have said if this is done every year that after a few years they are no longer in that area. ??? Worth trying to have done. Don't know about horses but my dogs do not seem to have a problem w/ fire ants.

So where do I go to find out if they will come out to my area?

[TexasHorseLady]

They don't bother our dogs or horses.

When we had them in town, and had cats and a dog and kids, we used boiling water to make them move on. Not just poured on the mound, but through a metal pipe with a flattened end to make it easy to pound it into the mound, then poured down through the pipe to get to the queen.