The Cross Timbers Land Management Symposium will be held April 1, 2026, at the Courthouse Annex lll (222 East College Street) Stephenville Registration will begin at 9:30 with the program starting at 10 a.m. and ending at 2 p.m. $15.00 registration fee which includes lunch.
Program topics include Weed and Grass bur Control, Fenceline Vegetation Control and Pasture Forage Pest Management.
There will be three CEU’s. for landowners with pesticide license.
Please contact Texas AgriLife Extension Office at 254-965-1460 by April 23rd to RSVP for the event.
Don’t let fire ants ruin your summer, take steps this spring Recent rains makes it a good time to control fire ants as this is when they search for food and build mounds, which makes them easier to locate.
“It’s time now in central and southern Texas to put out baits. Knutson said. “It’s a good time to apply baits in spring as they are generally slow acting. It typically takes two to four weeks to see results from using baits containing indoxacarb, spinosad or hydramethylnon. Starting as early as possible provides more time to enjoy summer without fire ants.”
Knutson said baits with other active ingredients may require two to six months to achieve results but often require fewer retreatments.
“By all evidence, this should be a typical fire ant year, with fire ants becoming more active over the next month or so,” he said. “Baits are still our best weapon against fire ants, and baiting season in North Texas runs from May to September. This is the time when fire ants will actively pick up baits and bring them to the nest.”
Fire ant mounds are often most visible at this time of year, Merchant said, so now is a good time to treat the biggest and worst mounds with an individual mound treatment, such as a liquid drench, or some form of granular, non-bait, insecticide or dust.
There will inevitably be small colonies that get overlooked by individual mound treatments, so AgriLife Extension still recommends broadcasting baits for fire ant control over the entire yards once the soil temperatures are warm enough for active fire ant foraging, usually around 70 degrees at 1-inch depth, Merchant said.
AgriLife Extension developed the Two Step methods of fire ant control to help consumers make sense of all the products on the market, Merchant said. The Two-Step Program is described in the attached bulletin and can be accessed via Merchants “Insects in the City” website: http://agrilife.org/ citybugstest/ files/2015/02/L-5070-1.pdf.
“The bulletin targets fire ant control in lawns and the home landscape,” Knutson said. “Where a product can be used, whether a lawn, garden, agricultural production pasture or orchard, is determined by the insecticide label. Users should read the pesticide label to be sure the site they are treating is listed on the product label.”
Baits have the advantage in that users don’t have to find each fire ant colony and treat them directly. They are also less costly in terms of time and amount of product needed when treating a large area.