Insect Management
Red Imported Fire Ants
Community Abatement - Sevier County
Natural Resources Conservation Service
and Cooperative Extension Service
Ralph Tyler, Agent- Agriculture, Sevier County
The citizens of Sevier County were concerned about fire ants. Located
in South Western Arkansas, Sevier County has been impacted by fire ants
for less than 10 years. Residents of the county seat of
DeQueen didn't expect that fire ants would reach their town. In
the winter of 1998 a meeting was held in DeQueen to discuss what could
be done to minimize the impact of fire ants. Individuals including
the county judge, local mayors, and representatives from industry met
and discussed what could be done in a small county of approximately
15,000 residents.
The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), under the leadership
of Robin Stacy volunteered to help develop and run a fire abatement
program that has two directions. One is a program to treat public use
areas in the county with a bait material (or materials), this includes
cemeteries, and public parks. The other is to sell at a reduced-cost
bait materials to residents of the county. The county judge and the
mayor of DeQueen donated monies to get the program started. Currently,
the program is in PILOT stage in which they are finding out how much it
will cost and the manpower involved in getting the program started.
The University of Arkansas' Cooperative Extension Service (CES) is
cooperating with NRCS by providing the recommendations for the products
to be used and purchased. CES has also donated 2 HERD spreaders to
the program which are used to treat the public areas, and given out to
county residents to use in application of the materials.
Ms. Stacy was able to apply for and receive a grant to continue the
program in July of this year and she is hopeful that the program will
continue for some time. Neighborhoods are currently be
educated about the program so that they can sign up for treatments also
-- there will be fee assessed to them.
Sevier County is just another example of the options available to communities
to minimize the impact of fire ants.
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Imported Fire Ant Community Abatement |
