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The Facts About Fire Ants

Fire ant colonies can grow incredibly fast! Within 5 months 15-20 workers can expand to over 7,000, and by the time the colony is 3 years old they can have a population of over 50,000. At maturity, a fire ant colony can grow to well over 400,000 ants. When a single acre of land can hold up to 400 mounds, their army grows exponentially!

The fire ants use their mandibles to grip their prey when attacking them, they inject venom from their stingers into their prey. Fire ant stings are incredibly painful to their victims and can be fatal to some. The sting usually results in red bumps and white pustules, which can lead to scarring.

Unlike typical ants, fire ants are omnivores – meaning they’ll feed on animal or vegetable sources of food. Fire ant workers typically survive on a diet of seeds, insects, earthworms, ticks, spiders, arthropod eggs, honeydew and other sweet materials. Fire ant larvae are fed by worker adults and stay on a liquid diet until their third larval instar is complete.

Fire ants mature from egg to adult in 30 days. Workers typically only live about 180 days while queens can live from two to six years. Fire ants prefer dry, warm and sunny conditions which is why they’re so fond of the southern United States.

Fire ants have a unique way of dealing with floods. They form a “raft” and float until they find dry land — they operate the raft in rotations to assure that no ant drowns in the process. On the plus side, fire ants cannot survive a typical winter, which is why they haven’t spread much further north than Tennessee. During the winter, fire ant colonies will move under pavement and home foundations, which can cause serious structural damage to your home.

Fire ants can cause real damage in both rural and urban settings:

• They will damage equipment, infrastructure and can harm livestock.
• Worker ants are attracted to electricity, so you can sometimes find their homes in electrical boxes, outlets, and even traffic lights.
• Fire ants cause millions of dollars of damage to livestock annually by invading pastures and attacking animals.
• Their presence can cause livestock to alter their grazing behavior.