How does fire ant bait work?
Depending on the active ingredient the fire ant baits that we use work two ways. The long lasting bait that carries over from spring to fall is picked up by worker ants and carried back to the colony where it is fed to the queen and the larvae and passed throughout the colony. The developing larvae can not mature to the worker stage and the queen’s reproductive organs degenerate and workers cannot be replaced causing the colony to die out. The “quicker kill” bait is consumed passed around the colony and begins to work very fast, but does not have the residual affect of the long lasting bait. The long lasting bait kills ants off slowly. The active ingredient that is in the bait has to work slowly so that the food can be passed around inside the colony before the ants realize it is harmful to them and they stop taking the bait. Baits are generally made of defatted corn grit that is soaked in soybean oil, and the active ingredient, or the toxicant, which is the formula that actually contr
