Serving the Hill Country Area Since 2009

Facts About Fire Ants

• Both native and Red Imported Fire Ants can sting. Red Imported Fire Ants are very aggressive and their sting can cause reactions ranging from irritation and nausea to even more severe reactions.
• Red Fire Ants are also known to attack animals that intrude on their nests. Besides attacking people and animals they can also cause damage to plants, buildings, air-conditioning units, and telephone wires. The reason is not clear, but fire ants seem to be attracted to electrical currents, and they cause damage by nesting in places such as electrical junction boxes. There are two kinds of Red Imported Fire Ants; the single-queen and multiple-queen types.
• Workers in single-queen colonies are territorial, foraging only within their territory. Workers from multiple-queen colonies are not territorial; they freely move from one mound to another, which has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of mounds per acre.
• Areas infested with single-queen colonies contain 40-150 mounds per acre (rarely more than 7 million ants per acre). In areas with multiple-queen colonies, there may be 200 or more mounds and 40 million Red Imported Fire Ants per acre.
• The Red Imported Fire Ant builds mounds in almost any type of soil, but prefers open, sunny areas such as pastures, parks, lawns, meadows, and cultivated fields. Colonies can also be located in or under buildings.
• Colonies frequently migrate from one site to another. The queen only needs a few workers to start a new colony. They can develop a new mound several hundred feet away from their previous location in a matter of hours.