PESTICIDES: Fire the Pests

Fire ants are running rampant on lawns in the southern United States. They’ve been found in yards as far north as Knoxville, Tenn., and experts predict they will spread further north in the coming years, says Daniel Potter, Ph.D., professor of urban landscape entomology at the University of Kentucky.
 
Besides being a nuisance and harming turf, the insects are also known to sting. Homeowners are eager to rid their lawns of the pests, as Mace Meier of Meier’s Landscape Maintenance in Lewisville, Texas, can attest. Meier, who offers the service, has seen fire ants take over untreated lawns. “If you don’t put this stuff down, you’ll have several mounds in a quarter-acre lot,” he says.

GETTING FIRED UP. Meier was watching the NCAA basketball tournament one year when he saw a commercial for an insecticide that targets fire ants. He bought it and tested it on his own lawn. “I’ll never go back to not using it,” he says. He thought his customers would feel the same way.
 
Since then, he has offered a once-per-year application that, if done correctly, keeps the pests at bay until the next year. Meier doesn’t find any certain time of year the best time to make applications. The service is offered whenever it has been a year since the customer’s last service. While the applications are staggered throughout the year, most are completed from April through September. Meier keeps a spreadsheet of the customers who subscribe to the service and notifies them when their last application is expiring. He doesn’t automatically perform the service because of the cost involved in making an application. Rather, it’s only done if he gets the OK first.
 
To find out if there is an infestation, check a property after a rainfall because fire ants are attracted to moisture, Meier says. They also like heat, so they’re attracted to landscape lighting, he says. To treat the problem, Meier uses a broadcast spreader to apply a granular insecticide that includes the active ingredient fipronil. The insecticide is relatively safe because the same ingredient is used to keep fleas and ticks off of dogs, Meier says.
 
Despite this, it’s still effective enough to knock out fire ant colonies. “If you leave the mounds alone, the ants die within a few weeks,” he says, adding larger mounds take a little longer. The application usually lasts a year, or sometimes 9 to 10 months depending on the lawn’s soil type.
 
Average price for an application on a quarter-acre lot is $109, Meier says. It costs about $20 to $25 to apply the insecticide, plus the cost of labor.

KEEP IT REAL. While the service is an easy profit, Meier doesn’t count on it as a revenue generator. “Very little of my overall revenue comes from this service,” he says. “It doesn’t cost much to put it down, but you’d be hard-pressed to make a living from it.”
 
Of Meier’s 600 clients, only about 17 use the service. He acknowledges he might have more if he invested more into advertising the service. “I advertised it pretty heavily in the first two years,” he says, adding every client but one has renewed the service. Usually, new customers come to him for the service. “If they call and ask if I can help, I’ll do it,” he says.
 
Meier had a higher number of callbacks when he first started because he didn’t fully educate them on the process. Reducing callbacks is about making sure the client has the right expectations, he says, adding while the service knocks out fire ant colonies, it might not eliminate every last one.
 
In addition, some clients don’t realize it takes a few weeks for the ants to die. “A lot of education has to go into that sale,” Meier says. “Set the right expectations or they’ll expect to never see another fire ant on that property for another year.”