With the recent rains around the New Braunfels area the fire ants are flourishing.  Many folks are asking what they can do to help combat these pests.  To be effective in your fight with the fire ants, you have to kill the queen.  Here are some options and methods to consider:

• Beneficial nematodes – use parasitic bugs to kill the ants.
• Drenching the mount with between two to three gallons of scalding water.  This can eliminate ant colonies, but works about 60% of the time. Be careful, the water can scald you, and kill nearby plants.
• An organic method is to use spinosad.
• Extinguish – Extinguish® Professional Fire Ant Bait is an effective bait that eliminates problem fire ant colonies. Specifically targeted for fire ants, Extinguish® contains Methoprene, an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR) (S-Methoprene) that affects a fire ant queen’s reproductive abilities. As existing workers die naturally, they are not replaced by a new generation. The queen eventually starves to death and the entire colony is eliminated.

Another pest we’ve seen of late are scorpions.  This is a two step process.  First clean up the inside of the house. Pick up clothes, laundry and any clutter items where they could be hiding.  Next, secure the outside of your house.  Patch up cracks to your home using sealant or caulking.  Look for hiding places outside, clean up clutter, remove rocks, firewood and any other areas where scorpions could be hiding.