Bayer Helps Kick Fire Ants out of School

MONTVALE, N.J. – Bayer Environmental Science announced the launch of their Fire Ant Free Schools Program, which offers qualified public and private schools a non-profit rate of 50 percent off all purchases of TopChoice, the company’s revolutionary fire ant prevention technology, until August 31.

“At Bayer, we believe that the best way to treat fire ants is to prevent them in the first place,” says Bryan Gooch, insecticides business manager for Bayer. “Realizing that budgets are tight, we are offering a non-profit rate to ensure that more schools can treat more acres, which can help protect millions of children from the threat of fire ants stings.”

TopChoice is a low-dose, non-bait granular insecticide that requires one annual application by a licensed professional. The product controls fire ants by eliminating existing mounds and preventing new mounds from forming. As unwitting ants come in contact with the bait, they bring it back and contaminate the rest of the mound.

Fire ants, which currently infest more than 325 million acres across the southern U.S., pose a serious and growing public health threat – injuring more than 20 million people each year with their stings.  This number will continue to grow as fire ants move northward and westward. 

A full-blown colony of fire ants can number up to 500,000 members. When disturbed, hundreds, sometimes thousands of ants, will attack an intruder, inflicting
painful stings that, in the most severe cases, can be life threatening. Studies show that 10 to 15 percent of individuals stung by fire ants experience severe localized allergic reactions, with 1 to 2 percent experiencing dangerous systemic reactions that, in rare cases, result in death.   

Fire ants currently infest Arkansas, Alabama, California, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Puerto Rico. They are moving northward and westward into Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Virginia.

For more information about the Fire Ant Free Schools Program, visit Bayer’s
Web site and click “TopChoice Goes to School.” Or, call Bayer Product Support at 800/331-2867 for more information.