Over'n Out!® Advanced Fire Ant Killer
In This Review:
When you and your family live under the threat of fire ant bites and stings, things can get stressful during fire ant season. From spring to fall, fire ant activity peaks and you never quite know where mounds will pop up next. That's doubly hard when you have active kids or you're worried about protecting curious pets.
Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer is intended for use as an outdoor broadcast or mound treatment. Just follow label instructions for your specific use. You can kill existing fire ants, fire ant mounds and fire ant queens — and keep protecting your family, pets and property against new fire ants for up to six months.
Performance: Fast, effective, six-month protection
Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer starts killing immediately by contact to kill fire ant mounds in 15 minutes and kill fire ant queens within 24 hours of application — before mounds can relocate to another spot in your yard. In addition, this product offers residual killing action that kills, controls and protects against new fire ants for up to six months.
This product combines two active ingredients — zeta-cypermethrin and bifenthrin — which kill fire ants by contact. As with other contact killers, that happens when ants touch the insecticide or when treated ants spread the contact killer to other ants as they forage and move through tunnels and mounds.
Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer has the same active ingredients in the same percentages by weight as the company's fire ant mound eliminator. According to the label, you can use this product both ways. The only differences between mound treatments and yard treatments are the application method and rate. You can also spot treat or protect home perimeters.
Application: Plan to use a lawn spreader and water-in
You'll need scissors to open the Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer bag. Unless you use the whole bag at once, you'll need a way to close it again, too, as the bag isn't resealable. The dry granular formula is free from any unpleasant odors, and we liked the earthy appearance, too. The grayish granules remind us of finely screened garden soil available at some garden centers and nurseries.
The product label does a great job of covering application methods and rates. For full lawn applications, which catch hidden mounds and prevent reinfestation from neighboring yards, you'll want to use a broadcast spreader for consistent application and ease. A spreader works best for perimeter applications, too. Depending on whether your infestation is heavy or light, the product recommends rates of 2.3 to 4.6 pounds per 1,000 square feet. You'll find recommended spreader settings on the labels.
For mound treatments, sprinkle 1/2 cup of the granules over the mound and a 4-foot-diameter area surrounding it. Then apply 1 to 2 gallons of water to release the active ingredients and move the insecticide through the mound into tunnels below. Take care not to damage the mound and trigger the ants to relocate. Instead, water with just enough force to break the mound's peak. A large watering can with a sprinkler head works well.
Like comparable fire ant killers, Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer is most effective when applied during cool morning and evening hours, when fire ants are most active. Temperatures between 65 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit are ideal. During these times, ants are foraging and moving through the mounds, so they help maximize the product's contact with ants through the colony.
Apply this product only to lawns and ornamental areas. Do not use it in vegetable gardens or around other edible crops. Combining lawn applications with individual mound treatments delivers maximum results.
Pets and Children: Re-enter after treated area is watered-in and dries
The label for our bag of Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer didn't include any information on protecting children and pets during or after applications. We had to go to the company's website to find out more. According to the website, you should keep people and pets out of the area during treatment with Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer. But after you apply and water-in the product, people and pets can reenter the treated area as soon as it dries.
Competition: Over'n Out!® Advanced Fire Ant Killer vs. Amdro® Kills Fire Ants Yard Treatment Bait
Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer and Amdro Kills Fire Ants Yard Treatment Bait are both designed for easy use in lawn applications. But these two products work in very different ways.
Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer is a contact killer intended to work quickly. Amdro Kills Fire Ants Yard Treatment Bait works slowly by design. The delayed killing action ensures ants stay alive to carry the bait back to the waiting queen and colony. The Over'n Out product must be watered-in immediately after application, but the Amdro bait product needs to stay dry.
Both these products come in bags, but the 2-pound bag of Amdro bait has a nifty, easy-open zip-close top in contrast to the Over'n Out bag, which doesn't reseal. The Amdro bag also has an insert with holes, which works like a shaker container. It's easy to use for perimeter applications and spot treatments around your home and yard.
An 11.5-pound bag of Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer treats up to 5,000 square feet for $19.99. That translates to about $4.00 per 1,000 square feet of your yard. At $12.97 for a 2-pound shaker bag, Amdro Kills Fire Ants Yard Treatment Bait treats 4,000 square feet — around $3.25 for 1,000 square feet.
Once you open the Amdro bag, the product stays effective for three months, so you can feel confident all season. But the Over'n Out product provides six months of residual protection against new fire ants and mounds. That's outdoors under the elements, which we find hard to beat.
Conclusions:
Despite the unresealable bag, we appreciate being able to use Over'n Out! Advanced Fire Ant Killer for all our fire ant needs. Combined with effectiveness, fast-killing action and long-lasting protection, that has us choosing this fire ant killer as the year's best overall.
The opinions represented in this article are the author's. However, the author has been paid by the owner of this website, Central Garden & Pet Company.
