Pest Management Professional, April 2014
ADVERTORIAL Making Picnics Safe Again Georgias Gwinnet County park system makes the wise decision to find a professional pest management company to treat a fire ant problem The Gwinnet County park system comprises more than 8000 acres of fields woodlands lakes meadows streams picnic shelters playgrounds gently rolling hills and fire ants Or at least the system was infested with fire ants until Bizzy Bee Exterminators was brought onto the scene Bizzy Bee treats about 300 acres of playgrounds walking paths and other areas where visitors to the parks might encounter the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta Bizzy Bee treats nearly 30 parks in the Gwinnet County system Bizzy Bee has more than 40 years in the pest management industry Until the Oxford Ga based pest management company was hired to treat the problem employees of the park system attempted to deal with the issue on their own The park systems management was buying the product and paying employees more familiar with cutting the grass to spray mounds says Brook Collins president of Bizzy Bee Exterminators The ants on and around the mounds were eliminated but that approach did nothing to deal with the overall fire ant problem You can continue to hit mounds but theyll move and pop back up Collins says A liquid bait kills a good amount of ants on top Collins says By doing a broadcast treatment youre giving them enough food to kill the entire colony not just what you see on the surface Red imported fire ant workers are variable in size 1 16 to 1 5 inch long and are dark reddish brown The pest has invaded states across the south The economic impact of these pests is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars Collins chose to go with Maxforce Ant Bait for that broadcast treatment The product can be used quarterly but Bizzy Bee Exterminators usually provides three treatments a year to make the service more financially palatable for the park system Bizzy Bee techs make the first treatments March through May before the ants were their most active They collect the bait and store and feed on it at a later time which helps it spread through the colony Follow up treatments were made in June and September when the ants become more of a problem Its also a much lower cost per acre than the product Collins used before Maxforce A lower cost per acre improves the companys profitability I like that its a fipronil based fire ant bait Collins says Its a bait so it takes a bit of time its not an instant kill The ants seem to receive it pretty well It takes a technician about two weeks to treat the 300 acres of common area Parks are a bit of a niche market for the company Bizzy Bee began treating large properties parks schools cemeteries about three years ago We found with the parks and rec department didnt want to deal with the liability of kids being bitten Collins says 1 800 331 2867 www backedbybayer com
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