Kick Fire Ants Out of School

Research Triangle Park, N.C. – Bayer Environmental Science has announced the beginning of their Fire Ant Free Schools Program for 2006, which offers qualified public and private schools one free bag of TopChoice, the company’s fire ant prevention technology, with every two bags purchased. 

The 2006 promotion is available to schools April 1 through October 31. TopChoice, a granular insecticide spread over turf like fertilizer, both controls and prevents fire ants for one year with a single, professional application. 

“Bayer realizes that schools are zero-tolerance zones when it comes to fire ants. We believe that the best way to combat fire ant infestations is to prevent them in the first place,” says Bryan Gooch, business manager, insecticides, Bayer Environmental Science. “We had so many schools take advantage of the promotion in 2005 we have decided to continue to offer a discounted rate in 2006. We hope that this year even more schools will take advantage of this opportunity to become fire ant free zones.”

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 those stung by fire ants experience severe localized allergic reactions, with one to two percent experiencing dangerous systemic reactions that, in rare cases, result in death.   

For more information about TopChoice visit www.nofireants.com, or contact your local Bayer ES sales representative or Bayer customer service at 800-331-2867.