Individual Mound Control of Red Imported Fire Ant in Residential Turf with Bait Formulations, 1995

Bait formulations of Finitron and Amdro were applied to individual mounds of RIFA in residential lawns in Piano, TX on 30 June, 1995. Measured amounts of bait material was applied evenly over and immediately adjacent to each mound with a hand held shaker. An untreated undisturbed check was included for comparison. A randomized complete block design was used with 15 replications of one RIFA mound per treatment in each replicate. Mounds were blocked by colony size, that is the largest colonies were in the first replicate. Mound activity was assessed 1-2 days before treatments and 2-wk, 3-wk, and 4-wk posttreatment ratings were taken. Mound activity was determined by stomping hard (4–5 times) on the soil or turf ca 1 ft from the mound in a circle around each mound. For the final rating at 4 wk (28 July), each colony was also excavated to a depth of ca. 8 inches with a small shovel to determine mound activity. If no live ants were found, the colony was considered dead. The percentage mortality provided by each bait treatment was determined and the means were separated using exact confidence intervals calculated from binomial distribution (Steel & Torrie. 1960. Principles and Procedures of Statistics. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.).