VIDALIA — The dog days of summer are guaranteed to bring two things: heat and stinging, busy, imported fireants.

And while those pesky critters may be a bane to those with manicured lawns and toddlers, they actually serve a useful purpose to farmers.

“Fireants are excellent foragers,” LSU AgCenter entomologist Dale Pollet said. “They feed on several insects.”

Among the insect treats the ants like are the caterpillars that live in — and often damage — cotton fields, Pollet said.

Fire ants also keep the tick population low in forested areas, and also eat fleas.

However, not all fireant beds in the fields mean good news for farmers.

The ants can build their nests around trees or other plants and cause too much soil aeration, and they can otherwise damage the soil or root systems of the plant, Pollet said.

Another problem that many people might overlook is that the ants will actually take care of some of the parasitic insects they eat.

“In sugarcane, the ants will actually take the mealy bugs down to the plant root system and in the spring they will bring them back up,” Pollet said.

The ants will also take care of aphid populations, he said.

Because of the size and scope of the fireant population, eradication of the insect is nearly impossible.

However, the ant population can be controlled with a simple fireant bait such as a growth regulator.

There are both chemical and organic baits on the market, though the chemical baits are more effective, Pollet said.

Before beginning a fireant baiting program, there are questions that need to be asked first, such as how much water is near the proposed baiting site to prevent the poison from working its way into the water table, Pollet said.

There are also fireant control materials available for areas such as playgrounds, he said.

The best time of year to poison fireant populations is in late September and October, and the best way to make population control effective is to treat large areas to keep ants from quickly reinfesting an area.

“We recommend organizing for your whole neighborhood to bait at the same time,” Pollet said.