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Ask anyone who works with insects and the public, and they’ll tell you – fall is fire ant time!  With the phone ringing off the hook with questions about imported fire ants, I thought I would share a few interesting tidbits about these pernicious pests.

There are two species of imported fire ants in the U.S., the black and red imported fire ants.  The black imported fire ant (Solenopsis richteri) was introduced from South America into Mobile, Alabama around 1918; the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) was introduced a couple of decades later.  The two species have interbred to form a hybrid, which is widespread in the southeastern U.S.  The black form is restricted to a small area of northeast Mississippi and northwest Alabama.  Overall, imported fire ants have infested some 320 million acres in the U. S. – from coastal North Carolina west to central Texas, with isolated infestations in New Mexico and California.

Ouch! A fire ant grips with its mouthparts

As it inserts its stinger…courtesy Texas A&M

Imported fire ants are one of only a few groups of ants that build true mounds – their soil mounds serve as solar collectors, capturing solar radiation and warming more quickly than the surrounding soil.  The entire colony moves up and down within the mound, staying in areas of preferred temperature.  Mound building is related to rainfall and season.  In general, mounds are low and inconspicuous during the hot, dry summer.  If you are just noticing imported fire ant mounds on your property, it is not because the ants were absent for the last several months – they have been there all along!  It is because cooler temperatures and moist soil have prompted mound-building activity.

Here are a few other random imported fire ant facts:

1.      Grits DO NOT kill fire ants.  Fire ant workers can only ingest liquid food, so the theory that grits will be eaten by the ants and blow them up is not true.

2.      It is illegal to apply gasoline to the soil.  While burning up a fire ant mound may be sweet revenge, it’s bad for the environment, and very expensive compared to typical fire ant mound treatments.

3.      Fire ant workers are all sisters, and are 75% related to one another!

4.      Every year, a few homeowners injure themselves or burn down parts of their home attempting to kill fire ants with gasoline.

5.      Winged male and female fire ants mate several hundred feet in the air; after that, the male dies and the female excavates a small chamber in the soil to raise her first brood.

6.      Fire ants enter and exit their mounds through a complex network of underground tunnels that branch throughout their territory.  Any given point in their territory is at most several inches from a tunnel opening.

7.      A small percentage of people may experience anaphylaxis – a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction – when stung by imported fire ants.

Your Black Pest Prevention Technician is trained to employ various methods against imported fire ants, and knows the key aspects of their biology that can affect control measures.  Bait products, mound treatments, and broadcast residual insecticides can all be effective when used correctly.  If you’re planning to control fire ants it helps to coordinate with your neighbors, since these ants relocate frequently and can quickly move from untreated areas to re-infest lawns.  Don’t let these invasive ants ruin your picnic, or worse – call us today!