Make a Plan to Eradicate Fire Ants This Year

by Rodney Morrow

Have you ever heard the phrase "shoot for the moon and you'll land among the stars"? Our team recommends taking that inspirational adage to heart as you build your 2026 fire ant control plan.

There's one thing I always say to customers building a fire ant program for the first time: "The goal shouldn't be control. The goal should be eradication." In other words, shoot for the moon: fire ant eradication; you'll land among the stars: significantly reduced fire ant activity and damage on your operation.

As large land and operation-owners across the United States know all too well, any relief from fire ants is sorely needed. From damage to equipment and infrastructure to crop destruction and sting risks for employees and animals, fire ants are an economically serious and dangerous threat. According to research published in the Ecological Society of America's Ecology journal, over 367 million acres of American land are impacted by the invasive Red Imported Fire Ant (RIFA). And that range is predicted to spread.

We must build strong fire ant programs to protect property, people, and animals. centered on one thing: fire ant eradication. Extinguish® fire ant baits are the ideal fire ant solution, formulated for long-term control.

Here's a fast-track to building your 2026 Fire Ant Program:

Cut off fire ants at the source with an IGR.

This means targeting the queen. Every fire ant colony has at least one but depending on the colony sizes and mound clustering on your operation, you could be looking at more than one.

Our pioneering insect growth regulator (IGR), (S)-methoprene, is an active ingredient in both Extinguish® Professional Fire Ant Bait and Extinguish® Plus. It impacts the queen's reproductive ability to prevent rebound and help eliminate colonies altogether.

Using a bait without an IGR is like trying to chop the heads off a many-headed monster that keeps growing. Imprecise targeting will lead to mixed results.

Use a 1-2 Punch to prevent reproduction AND target adult ants.

Some operations, like those that grow fruit-bearing trees, for example, plan effective fire ant control programs built around Extinguish® Professional Fire Ant Bait. It utilizes (S)-methoprene to reduce colony activity. Colony reduction can be seen beginning at 3 weeks and colony elimination can be seen within 6-8 weeks. As an IGR-based solution, this bait can be used with confidence anywhere: around people, livestock, pets, and even other beneficial ant species.

For operations where fruit-bearing trees aren't present, Extinguish® Plus provides the 1-2 punch. This fire ant bait combines the killing action of an adulticide and the long-lasting control of an IGR. The adulticide starts killing worker fire ants immediately after ingestion, while the IGR prevents the queens from laying further eggs.

See our market pages here to determine which solution best suits your operation.

Plan your applications strategically throughout the year.

My best advice is to align your fire ant application with your regular seasonal inputs. The fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other inputs you apply to your land regularly help keep your operation going every year. Blending Extinguish® fire ant baits with a dry fertilizer or other dry-formulation input can help protect your investment and increase field profits while saving time, money and resources.

Both products are best applied when ants are active and foraging, when soil temperature is above 60 degrees Fahrenheit. This tends to work best in the spring and the fall, when temps are just warm enough that fire ants are stirring, but activity hasn't reached its peak.

To determine when ants are foraging, place a crumbled potato chip near the mound and apply product when feeding occurs. Take care to apply product when area is completely dry from dew, irrigation or 6 hours outside of a rain event.

Get more in-depth info on applying each product here.

Stay vigilant on the road to eradication. We're here to help.

Something I like to keep in mind when planning a program is that a single RIFA queen can lay thousands of eggs each day, leading to explosive population growth if unchecked. The road to eradication starts here.

Visit our "How to Purchase" page here to find the representative in your state who can help get you started. If you're in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, or Virginia, I'm your guy!

Rodney Morrow
Cell: (352) 651-2780
rmorrow@central.com

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