Released May 29, 2009

HAMPTON, Ark. - Over the years, Arkansas residents have tried many schemes to rid themselves of fire ants. Some ideas are just downright dangerous to the environment such as pouring bleach, ammonia, petroleum products or other non-EPA approved materials on mounds.

Farmers have used large rollers pulled behind tractors to flatten the ants’ large mounds in the fields. But fire ants are resilient and their mound tunnels go surprising deep into the earth so they get back into business before you know it.

Ant bait products are still the weapon of choice recommended by the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.

But Jaret Rushing is impressed with one control method that hasn’t been talked about much - boiling water.

"At one point in time, I thought that poison, poison, poison, was the best way to knock back fire ants," said Rushing, Calhoun County extension agent with the U of A Division of Agriculture.

"As an agent, we get calls all the time dealing with some odd questions and methods of control," he said. So when Manuela Koinig, a graduate student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, asked if I knew of any remote places to conduct a fire ant study and mentioned that she planned to use boiling water as part of her research project, he raised an eyebrow.

"I thought I had heard of some interesting fire ant control tactics, but this one was new to me." Being a graduate student himself, he could sympathize, and he agreed to help.

Armed with two 30-gallon tubs of water and a fish cooker, the two drove to an air field and began heating water. They used 3 gallons of boiling water on each mound and watched the ants perish. They treated the mounds again a week later.

The effects were impressive. The mounds disappeared and the ants were gone.

"Before everyone starts thinking that this was a miracle treatment, I will say that plots were only 4 meters by 4 meters, which is not a long way for ants to migrate to another mound," Rushing said. After secondary fire ant counts, he said Koinig concluded that the mound treatments did have a positive effect on the control of the ants.

Rushing said if done right, pouring boiling water on mounds can provide control of fire ants in a centralized location. As a negative, boiling water will kill grasses and other plants if poured directly onto the vegetation. Also, heating water to a boil takes time and would not be feasible for large scale control of fire ants

If a farmer or homeowner is considering using the tactic, he or she should consider if treating individual mounds with boiling water is worth their time and worth killing grass and other vegetation around the mounds.

John Hopkins, urban extension entomologist, said the big drawback to using boiling water is the danger to people using it. He said there is a risk of accidentally burning yourself while using boiling water.

While people have used "anything toxic they can find in the house" on mounds, the main problem is environmental contamination, Hopkins said.

"Home remedies are rarely successful in the long term and usually only cause the colony to move," he said.

Ant baits are recommended because ants distribute the product throughout the mound. Retreatment at 10-14 days after the initial application is recommended for any mounds that are still hanging on.

Hopkins was familiar with the UALR research project because he was the one who recommended boiling water. "It was a scientific tool in a research study to eliminate fire ants from a small specific area."

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http://www.uaex.edu/news/may2009/0529fireants.htm

Writer: Lamar James, (501) 671-2187, ljames@uaex.edu