Interesting Fire Ant Facts

We often get calls from folks who have recently moved to our area from out of state and have had their first encounter with fire ants. To put it mildly, they are horrified that such an insect exists and can’t understand why the rest of us are so seemingly so casual about them. We agree, fire ants are not to be trifled with and are pretty nasty. But Fire ants are also amazing creatures, so we thought we would share some interesting facts about them that you may not know.

Fire ants first came to the US in about 1918, arriving at the port in Mobile, Alabama. They arrived in soil used as ballast for the cargo ships. It took until the 1950’s for them to reach Texas and, since that time, they have spread all over the Southeast. The northern migration of fire ants is limited by cold winter temperatures that freeze the soil deeply enough to not allow the colonies to overwinter.

Fire ants spread by swarming: Unmated, winged reproductive male and female ants exit the mound in mass, fly into the air and mate while airborne. The newly mated fire ant queens fall back to the ground within a few miles of the mound from which they emerged. They shed their wings, eat them, and then attempt to start a new colony.

Fire ant resting on a leaf.The queen does this by laying a few eggs that eventually become small workers. These first workers then help care for their younger sisters and the colony begins to grow. Most of the ants in a fire ant colony are infertile, female workers. It takes several months for a colony to grow enough to build a mound large enough to be noticed in the average home lawn. Worker fire ants vary in size, but all are capable of stinging (fire ants first bite to grasp the skin, and then inject their stinger).

For every large mound in a lawn there are usually many younger colonies that are still too small to produce visible mounds. Small colonies develop into large colonies especially quickly if there are no bigger colonies nearby to compete with them. Once a young fire ant colony is well established and has a few thousand workers, it can quickly develop into a mature colony containing tens of thousands of ants. The mound is just like the tip of an iceberg and represents just a hint of what is going on under the soil.

Fire ant queens live a long time – as long as 7 years. They can lay up to 1,600 eggs per day. This translates to over 4 million eggs in her lifetime! The queen will never leave the nest once she develops into a breeding queen.

Three fire ants. Fire ants have a complete life cycle. The eggs hatch into legless larvae, which develop into pupae, and ultimately become adults. As you will see later, the larvae are essential to allow the colony to eat. Fire ants feed on a wide range of food, including insects, honeydew, plant nectar, seeds, fruit, and animal carcasses. They are especially interested in foods high in fat. Foraging workers exit the mound through underground tunnels that radiate away from the mound, exiting to the surface 5 to 25 feet away from the mound.

Adult fire ants are incapable of swallowing solid food and have to carry it back to the mound. Solid food is fed to the larger larvae, which chew and digest it, then regurgitate it in liquid form. This liquid food is then passed from the larvae back to the workers and shared with all ants in the colony. The queen will wait 48 hours before she eats the food, and if her workers die after ingesting it, she will not eat, thereby ensuring that the colony will not be lost.

 Fire ant colony.Fire ants are social insects that nest in the soil in large colonies that contain tens of thousands to more than 200,000 ants. During cold, wet weather fire ants tend to maintain their colonies high above ground—to keep brood out of water-logged soil and to take advantage of solar heating. During hot, dry weather fire ants tend to maintain their colonies below ground—to take advantage of cool, moist conditions.

Fire ant colonies can survive flooded conditions by “rafting,” and will establish a new mound wherever they happen to make landfall. This rafting is an amazing technique and it’s well worth a quick watch of this video from Nat Geo WILD to see it in action.

During times of flooding, it’s essential to keep an eye out for these rafts and stay well out of their way. When forced to relocate, worker fire ants will use their bodies to build a bridge across narrow expanses of water to allow safe transportation of their brood.

Fire ants have only one known predator; the Phorid Fly. The female phorid fly will seek out fire ants and lay her eggs in the ant’s thorax. When the egg moves into their larvae stage, they will push onto the ant’s head and kill it.

As with all insects, effective pest control requires a good understanding of the insect in question. While many homeowners utilize a poison they water in, to try and control and kill fire ants in their yard, Mosquito Joe prefers to use a bait that allows us to kill the queens. Our bait has a 72-hour delay which means we are able to circumvent the queen’s 48 hour wait time to feed, thereby killing the colony completely. Give us a call at 979-859-5998. to find out more!

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How to Stop Mosquitoes

 

March is the month that Mosquito Joe of S Brazos Valley suggests that those customers, who opted to pause service in the cooler months, start back with service. Depending on the winter we may already be seeing mosquitoes – wet and milder winters set us up for a serious mosquito population in the spring. The temperatures will now begin to rapidly climb, and it won’t be long until mosquitoes are a huge issue.

So how do you stop mosquitoes from taking over this year? Obviously calling us is your solution, but even then, we always ask our customers to work with us to prevent their yards from being a sanctuary for mosquitoes.

Here are some tried, routed in science, methods to employ this month to help stop mosquitoes in your yard:

  1. Spring-clean your yard: The leaves have stopped falling and the weather is warming, so it’s time for a landscape cleanup. Rake up and remove all the remaining fallen leaves and pine needles from this winter. Pick up broken limbs and twigs from the ground. The less ground cover you have the drier your soil, and that means mosquitoes have less places to lay their eggs.
    pile of leaves holding water
  2. Clean your gutters and not just a grab overhead of debris either. All that silt and compost-like material that is breaking down in the gutters play a big role as well. So, once you have the leaves and twigs, etc., cleaned out, take your hose, and flush the gutters clean. Make sure the water flows out of the gutter and that the gutter has not sagged and is holding water. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in that decomposing matter and it’s one of the places that is hardest for us to reach when we treat.
    roof and gutters of a home
  3. Tarps, pots and containers must be removed from your yard. Did you know that it only takes 1 teaspoon of water to breed 300 mosquitoes every few days? Sometimes it’s hard to even recognize an issue when you see it every day. Your best rule of thumb is to remove all those items and get them inside – after you drain them all so you don’t bring the mosquitoes with you! We’ve found mosquitoes breeding in the bottom of watering cans inside a shed that had a tiny opening in its door.
    old wheel barrel
  4. Septic systems: these are one of the worst offenders for our customers. Water you don’t see you just don’t consider, and there is a lot down there. Over time septic tank lids can crack and come loose. Sometimes your septic company may visit and forget to seal down the openings after their checks. So, check out your lids – an easy check is to open one. If mosquitoes come flying out, you know they are getting in – it doesn’t take much of an opening to get inside.
  5. Yard grading, French drains, and more: When it comes to mosquitoes your source, and thus number one priority, is water. Once you’ve dealt with all the areas in your yard that catch water you need to turn your attention to any areas that hold water after rain or weather. French drains are tricky as they always hold water under the ground that we don’t see, and so don’t consider them. Making sure that those drains are clear of debris and free flowing will help immensely. The same is true for your gutter downspouts – they can fill up with debris over time and hold vast amounts of water in them. Make sure when you flush your gutters that the downspouts are free flowing. Finally, check out your yard drainage. With all the construction in our area, things change frequently. If you can, lay down some dirt over areas that act like containers after rain, and try and encourage the movement of water away from your yard.
    little kid jumping in puddle of water in a field
  6. Remove mosquito traps and bug lights: these do nothing more than encourage mosquitoes to come to visit your yard and once there, you are a much tastier meal than the traps. If you want to use a mosquito trap place it at the edge of your property. And bug zappers just don’t do anything except kill insects you should want around.
  7. Call Mosquito Joe: When we treat a yard we tip and toss, provide advice to our customers, check your septic, treat your gutters where we can reach, and treat any standing water and places that may be dry but will hold water later. We treat flowering plants with garlic, to push mosquitoes to other areas without impacting the pollinators, all the green leaves on both sides, and all fence lines to kill any mosquitoes that land to feed. We work to prevent larvae from hatching into adult mosquitoes as well as killing the adult mosquitoes in your yard. The aim is to break the lifecycle in your garden and reduce your population by over 95%. If anyone tells you they can get rid of every single one, well they are not being honest. Mosquitoes have been around since before the dinosaurs for good reason.
    Mosquito Joe of NW Houston & S Brazos Valley Sign

Finally, as silly as it sounds when you are walking around your yard try and think like a mosquito. Imagine that the smallest amount of water is your life source, and you must find it to lay eggs. The simple curve on a dry leaf makes a happy spot, as does a birdbath and a pot, or a discarded beer can full of rainwater. There are so many places’ mosquitoes will use. The tidier you can keep your yard the better off you will be. And if you don’t want to think like a mosquito, give us a call. It’s pretty much what we do – 979-859-5998.

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How to Enjoy Spring Break Without Mosquitoes

Hopefully, you have been following along with our suggestions for reducing the mosquitoes in your yard, particularly our January post detailing all the things you can do.

Now that we are in March and preparing for spring break it’s a good time to think about ways to make your yard more pleasant for your youngsters as they enjoy some time outside in the sun.

We won’t repeat our previous suggestions so please jump over to the earlier post on the topic if you want a solid overview of what to keep an eye on. Instead, we will focus on the likely activities this break and how they can impact your yard.

We all love a good slip-n-slide or kiddie pool, or at least our children do. They seem pretty innocent on the face of things, but they can both cause some major mosquitoes. Any type of tarp, like a slip and slide, can hold pockets of water, and it doesn’t take much time for mosquitoes to find them. Remember, 1 teaspoon of water will produce 300 mosquitoes in no time at all. To prevent this, make sure you store it away carefully when the kids are finished. Hang it flat over a fence to ensure it is dry, and then roll it up away and out of the elements so that water cannot gather inside it and cause issues for you.

girl playing with water tube
When it comes to a kiddie pool it’s best to make sure the water stays clean – treat it according to directions with chlorine and clean the base regularly. We’ve seen “forgotten” kiddie pools in the past and the number of mosquitoes they were breeding defies belief. Make sure you keep the pool in the sun and avoid placing it where shade is always present – mosquitoes will be less likely to visit during the day. And, most importantly, place the pool where the water won’t pool beneath it – a slight slant to the ground beneath is ideal so that the water can run away when splashed. A kiddie pool placed in the shade, with pooled water beneath it will result in a huge leap in your mosquito population.

toy play houseKids’ water toys can also cause issues. It’s easy to forget a loaded water gun discarded in the corner of the yard, but the mosquitoes won’t forget it. The same holds true for other kids’ toys – most plastic ones will fill with water after sprinklers run or rainfalls. They can hold a surprisingly substantial amount of water. Don’t forget the larger items either – outdoor children’s kitchens or playhouses can have a lot of nooks and crannies that hold water.

wheel barrel next to dirtFinally, this is often the time of year when we bring new mulch into our yards to beautify and prep for
summer. Many people don’t realize it, but mulch is loaded with insects and with mosquito eggs. We spread and water it and then are surprised when we see a jump in mosquitoes a few days later. It can happen to us even when it is our neighbors who have mulched. There isn’t much we can do about this, unfortunately. However, if you are bringing in bagged mulch, spread it as soon as you can and get rid of the bags. Bags of mulch always have holes in them. Let them sit outside and get hot and wet and you will breed far more than if you spread it and allow it to dry.
 
man playing in the ocean

We hope you have a wonderful March and enjoy your spring break, whether home or away. We hope these suggestions are helpful to you, but if you would rather sit back and enjoy your yard give Mosquito Joe of S Brazos Valley a call and we can do the work for you – 979-859-5998.

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How to Keep Water Activities From Breeding Mosquitoes

It’s hard to believe that we are halfway through 2020 although some might say it’s the longest year on record. As we approach the hottest month of the year the yard is filling with toys to keep our kids cool. Slip n’ slides and water balloon fun can help make for an exciting afternoon outside while keeping the family cool, but they are also a potential attractant for mosquitoes. As always, we want to help you keep that mosquito population down and are here to point out some ways to do just that.

A man and a group of kids playing with water

Water games are popular in Texas, and with good reason. In the mid-afternoon sun, you and your kids can overheat quickly. It’s what you do after the games are finished that will have a big impact on the number of mosquitoes in your yard. After all, mosquitoes need water to lay their eggs. The more water the merrier as far as they are concerned, but they don’t need much. Just one teaspoon of water provides enough surface area for 300 eggs!  So, the key to managing the population is in how you put the toys away.

Slip n’ slides and kiddie pools are often emptied of water and left to dry. If they are put away when they are still wet, pockets of water can attract mosquitoes.  Compound that with how we store them – often in a dark place – and we just made the mosquitoes a most excellent home. Ideally you want to hang these toys up to drip dry and then fold them and store them in a sealed location.

Buckets and water balloon toys often have the same fate. We hide them away in a tub or in a garage, but we don’t remove all the water before we do. Since these places are cool and shaded, mosquitoes will welcome the opportunity to lay their eggs in these locations and before you know it you have quite the population boom.

A dog playing with a water hose

A simple and fun afternoon can be spent running around with a sprinkler in the yard. Where things can often go wrong is when other toys, inevitably in the yard as well, are hit with the sprinkler and fill up with water. We recently had a customer who was having continual issues under his car port. We made multiple visits to try and determine the issue with no luck. Finally, one day we arrived early, to find an outdoor play kitchen out in the yard. We realized that it was full of mosquito larvae (on the face of it looked very clean, but inside the walls of the kitchen was stagnant water). Turns out, the customer was putting the toy in his garage before we came to treat and then returning it outside for the grandkids. We estimated about 1.5 gallons of water in when we emptied it.

The key takeaway here is to just to be conscious of mosquitoes and their behavior when you clean up the yard after a day of play. Make sure everything is dry and that your storage location is completely sealed. Damp, shady places with pockets of water will breed millions of mosquitoes. Check slides and playhouses for water and get rid of as much as you can by rotating it or moving it into a sunny area.

We hope you create some great memories with your kids and none of them involve bug bites and if they do, give us a call and we will be happy to make your outside a fun place to be.

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Things to Do at Home

For the introverts amongst us, staying at home is not much of a change in routine.  But for the extrovert, thumb twiddling could become the next sport.  We thought we would gather together some ideas to keep you busy during this strange time.

If you are looking for some “big” ideas, consider learning a new language or taking up an art form. From painting to simple doodling, you can pass a few happy hours this way: watercolor, oil paint, drawing, sculpting and so on.   There are a lot of tutorials available on YouTube for every art medium you can think of. If you want something that requires less skill, check out some of the new A person painting with a brush in a bucket of paintpaint by number options out there. You can paint some pretty impressive and large pieces of art these days. You can also consider scrapbooking. Do you have a pile of old photos you’ve always been meaning to sort out? Now is a great time to sit down and create some albums for your family to treasure. Create a vision board and get your kids to do the same.

Baking is a great hobby that has the added benefit of filling up your kitchen with yummy treats. The only down-side here is the possible lack of ingredients in your local stores.  Check out Instagram for streaming bread-making classes, or, again, head to YouTube for some free lessons. There are also a multitude of companies that offer classes online if you want to take that paDough balls of dough on a tableth.

If you love to organize, now is a great time to set about with a plan to sort out your home.  Marie Kondo and her book “The Magic Art of Tidying Up” approaches tidying from a new perspective and you can drill down and get your whole house revamped in a few weeks.  It’s also a great time for all those honey-do’s that there is never any time for.

A person holding a plantGardening is another great hobby that you can really enjoy this time of year. Maybe you’ve always intended on laying a new bed or revamping some old ones. Getting outside can really keep your spirits up when you are asked to stay home and what better way to use your time than to make some changes and upgrade your curb appeal.

If gardening isn’t for you, work on the inside of your home and consider painting a new color on the wall or moving some furniture around.

People sitting around a campfire

If you have children, you know that starting a new hobby is not as easy as it sounds. But consider making it a family affair and learn something new together. Have an afternoon of art, create a fairy garden outside or sort out their toys with them. Pulling out some cards or jigsaw’s or games is a great way to spend time together. Think about putting a tent up in the yard and going on a “camping trip” or build a fort in the game room.

A notepad with a list of goals and a penSpeaking of the kids, consider getting everyone involved in some family exercise like yoga or aerobics. An hour of expending some energy will help everyone’s sanity. Opt for a picnic in the garden instead of dinner at the table if the weather allows. The key with kids is having some kind of routine to make each day have purpose. Honestly, routine is key with us adults too. Consider writing down all the tasks you wish you had time for, and all the things you wish you had time to learn.  Then create a calendar to get those things accomplished. Just don’t forget to intersperse some fun in there!

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