I am looking for something to kill fire ants. I have 1 1/3 acres and have a fair number of ant mounds. The ant killer I am using seems to just move the ants to different locations. A friend of mine recommended that I use a product called Extinguish. Does anyone have any experience using this product? If it works well, where can it be purchased? I wanted to put some out if this is the time to do it. I have a broadcast spreader if it needs to be done over the entire lawn.

Haven't heard about it but just looked it up and dang, it's expensive. It's a bait type poison. Those are the best. I use Amdro Fire Ant Bait and it does the job. The thing about fire ants is that the mound is like an iceberg. It's the little bit that you see but their nest is a complex system underground. Kill the mound and they pop up a new one nearby. The baited poison is taken into the nest and if it kills the queen, the whole colony dies.

Top Choice

EOT

MrjonMan-

Did you/do you work in pest control? If so, and you still do, what area do you work in? We are looking for someone to come do our house in Friendswood.

03 Aggie, I do, but unfortunately Friendswood is out if our area.

Appreciate the response. We'll keep poking around.

Second Top Choice.

You want the one with the Termador base chemical. You used to be able to buy it in the store as over and out (I think - blue bag.) But they changed the chemical quietly when regulations changed. Now you have to have an applicators license to buy it, I believe.

Either way, it works better than anything else I ever used. Used the self applied, at the advice of my pest guy, for years and NEVER had ants in my yard. Now I just have my pest guy do the yearly application. It costs about twice what it cost to diy it. But it is still worth it to me.

Step on the mound, wait about 10 seconds, then drench them with a full pot of boiling water. BAM: instant dead mound. Oh, also, dead grass, but whatever.

Full disclosure, this is what I actually do for my backyard. My kids and dog tear it up, so I don't care if I have a dead spot for a couple of weeks, it's more important for me to see dead ants.

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Top Choice

EOT

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Think you have to have a license to buy Chipco TopChoice.

Termidor has the same active ingredient and can be bought online for about $50 in a spray bottle.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004FEJ4IQ?pc_redir=1410349649&robot_redir=1

Yea you can buy Termidor (sadly) but I wouldn't advise power spraying your entire backyard with it.

topchoice is the hands down best granular product for fire ant control, it contains fipronil just as Termidor does. Over and Out had it on the market, then due to it showing up in places it shouldn't (water mainly, extremely toxic to fish and birds), it went restricted. Bayer was forced to no longer sell it to any other company.....wish there would be a lot more chemicals like that.

Absolute - who do you use? How much do they charge?

I use Tri County Pest - Randy Whitehead - 214-934-5302.

I use him to do all of my WDIs on my home inspections, so I get the treatment at cost on the chemical. Not sure what the typical price would be. Obviously depends on yard size. I am guessing 75 - 100 for a typical yard. Still worth it though, since it works so well.

Be surprised if that's the cost Absolute.....$75 isn't even half the cost of a 50lb bag of Top choice, typically you factor 2 yards per bag.....

I will absolutely defer to you MrJon. I really don't know the price. I had it done in the Spring and honestly don't remember. And, as I admitted, I did not pay the retail price for the service.

Oh for sure, just wanted to give you a heads up

Jon - why do you advise not using Termidor? Absolute is saying it has the same active ingredient. Just wondering. thanks.

Because it's illegal to spray your entire yard with it

I've been using Over N Out and it tends to wreck shop in the little demons

Crom,

It may still work. Just be aware that the formula changed. I used it last year before noticing the change and did not have any issues. Just not confident that it will work as well.