The fire ants are very aggressive, and have been known to repeatedly attack animals that intrude their nests. Their sting can cause irritation, nausea, and even more severe reactions in humans. The red fire ants are more aggressive than any other fire ant. The red fire ant is known to attack people, plants, and animals, as well as cause damage to homes, buildings, air-conditioning units, and telephone wires. They may also infest pet food, and potted plants, and even work their way indoors to torment humans. The primary concern of a fire ant infestation is the danger of multiple stings, and the reactions they cause. Reactions from fire ant stings include localized swelling and edema in severe cases where respiratory distress occurs.

Fire ants are able to build mounds in almost any type of soil, but they prefer to build in open, sunny areas, such as pastures, parks, lawns, meadows, and cultivated fields. The mounds can reach up to 18 inches in height, but this depends on the type of soil they are built on. Some mounds may also be found in rotting logs and around stumps and tress, and may even occur other buildings. When the mounds are disturbed, its inhabitants will come out of the ground and aggressively attack the intruder. Fire ant colonies can reach numbers as small as 300 workers and as large as 500,000 workers, which can cause great damage and pain. They can cause damage to cultivated plants in gardens, may eat seeds from crops and the buds from developing fruits.      

The damage of the fire ant can be great, and it is best to eliminate them using bait and insecticide.

 Fire ant bait should be sprinkled around the ant’s mound instead of directly on top. Using ant bait will allow the foraging ants to feed the poisonous bait to the queens, thereby killing the source of the fire ant problem. It should be applied on a sunny day, when there will be great activity around the mound, so that the ants can immediately forage for the bait. However, if the day is extremely hot, the bait should not be put out, because fire ants will not be active in extreme temperatures. The weather should also be checked for at least a week, because rain in the forecast can cause bait to be washed away.

There are many advantages to using baits, because they are effective against small colonies that are not large enough to be seen yet. Baits require less effort for application, and can be used over large areas. An alternative to fast-acting baits are slow-acting baits that can be applied, then followed one month later by individual mound treatments. Ant bait stations can also be used; they are stations with granulated bait inside to keep it dry, so children and pets will not be exposed to them. Liquid fire ant insecticides are also effective in killing fire ant colonies.

The fire ant’s mound should be drenched in the insecticide, but it must be used in large quantities; a gallon per mound is the average. Like the bait, the goal of the fire ant insecticide is to kill the queen. The most effective way to kill the queen is to use a rod to form vertical tunnels to facilitate the liquid mixture to reach the queens. Several gallons of insecticide are needed for large colonies, and only ½ to two gallons is needed for small colonies. Drenching the fire ant mound will almost certainly cause immediate death of the ants. When applying the insecticide, it is important not to disturb the colony, because disturbance can cause colony movement. Fire ants are pests that can cause damage and pain, and it is important to eliminate them before they eliminate other things.

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