Neighborhood Safety

Glenlake is a wonderful place to live, but responsibility for your personal safety, as well as the safety of others, is very important. Here is some information to get you started on the right path.

Coyotes

Keep Wildlife Wild! That means do not feed the wildlife! Providing food, either deliberately or inadvertently, is training these opportunistic predators to keep returning to the area of that food source.

• Keep small pets in at night.
• Always supervise small children playing outside.
• Do not leave pet food or spilled bird seed around outside.
• Do not leave garbage where wildlife can get at it.
• If you spot a coyote, call 311 and report it.

Please be vigilant in watching for coyotes and report any sightings to 311 (call 911 if the threat is imminent or there is an attack on a pet or human), and in following the recommendations provided at the “Urban Coyotes” page on the Austin City Connection website to help avoid attracting coyotes to the neighborhood.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions or suggestions.

Fire Ants

Twice a year, at pre-announced times (often in May and September), Glenlake residents get together to fight fire ants with our coordinated “Fire Ant Weekends,” where everyone is asked to treat their mounds simultaneously. This coordinated effort is much more effective than everyone treating their yards at different times.

The Texas Agricultural Extension Service has developed a 2-step program for controlling fire ants on a community-wide basis.

There are two basic methods for exterminating fire ants:

• Baits, of which there are two kinds
  • Fast-acting baits, like Amdro, kill both workers and the queen.
  • Slow-acting baits (Insect Growth Regulators or IGRs), like Logic, Extinguish, Award and Distance, kill only the queen so she cannot produce eggs; the mound eventually dies without the queen.
• Contact Insecticides, like Orthene, Diazinon and Sure Stop, kill only the ants that it touches.

The 2-step program involves, sometime during Glenlake Fire Ant Weekend:

Step 1: Broadcast bait using a hand spreader around your entire property.
Step 2: Use contact insecticide to treat mounds in your yard

Some tips:

• To protect yourself from fire ant bites, dust your boots and garden tools with talcum powder. Ants cannot get traction  on the powder.
• For treating fire ant bites, several “home” remedies that may help include:
  • Meat tenderizer applied to bit
  • Treat as you would a bee sting;
  • A mixture of peroxide and vinegar applied to the bite
• Managing Red Imported Fire Ants in Home Lawns and Ornamental Turf
• The ABC’s of Fire Ants and Their Management
• Fire Ant Control Methods for Pets
• A Review of “Organic” and Other Alternative Methods for Fire Ant Control
• Survey-Based Management of Red Imported Fire Ants
• Know Your Fire Ant Baits From The Contacts!