Williamson County Community Gardening Program

Fire Ants

To control fire ants and other pests like fleas, termites, chinch bugs, ticks, crickets and grasshoppers:

Habitat - Almost any soil but prefers open, sunny areas such as pastures, parks, lawns, meadows and cultivated fields. They will also infest the vegetable garden. They love eggplant, okra, cabbage and broccoli. Fire ants do not like biodiversity.

Natural Control - Lizards, birds, other insects and microorganisms. Compost tea, and beneficial nematodes. The beneficial fungus Beauveria bassiana is also effective against fire ants.

 

Organic Control - Drench the fire ant mounds with a mixture of compost tea, molasses and citrus oil. The commercial products available that contain these ingredients include Garden-Ville Fire Ant Control (Soil Conditioner) and GreenSense Soil Drench. The homemade concentrate includes equal parts of compost tea, molasses and citrus oil. Homemade citrus oil can be made by soaking citrus peelings in an equal amount of water for 10 days to two weeks. Use 4-6 ounces of concentrate per gallon of water. Adding garlic-pepper tea makes the spray even more powerful. Many gardeners report good results with instant grits, Malt-o-Meal and other instant break fast cereals. Spraying products that contain molasses helps keep them away.