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The fire ant
is a reddish-brown or black insect so named for its painful sting.
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Fire ants prefer
oily and greasy food. To find food, workers forage around the mound,
moving about through underground tunnels.
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During spring
and summer, winged males and females mate in the air. After mating,
females become queens and may fly as far as 10 miles to start a new
colony.
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Unable to see
or hear, fire ants communicate by using chemicals called pheromones.
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Queens can live
about 6 years and can lay over 200 eggs a day.
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Fire ant mounds
vary in size, depending on the size of the colony. For example, a
mound that is 2 feet high and 18 inches long may house up to 100,000
ants.
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Mounds have
been found in Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida that are
over 4 feet high and 5 feet in diameter.
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The mound is
formed from the displaced soil that results when fire ants build their
underground tunnels. The ants are constantly moving their eggs and
queen inside the colony to locate the most comfortable temperature.
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Some colonies
have been known to contain as many as 500,000 ants.
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As many as
97,000 queens are produced each year in highly infested areas.
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During
the hot, dry months of summer, the ants do not maintain their mounds.
As soon as the rain and cooler weather return, however, the mounds
are reworked and become visible.
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Although
mounds are important, they do not seem to be required. An ant colony
may decide to nest in the walls of a building, under rocks or in logs—wherever
desirable conditions can be found.
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A
warm, moist climate is prime fire ant habitat.
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Fire ants tend
to be on the move in warmer weather. Many
pest control operators will apply bait during a warm front when the
ants are out foraging.
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During
a heavy rainfall, fire ants will “ball up” and float, thus
surviving the rain.
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The
red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) arrived in Mobile,
Alabama, from South America in the 1920s. By the 1940s, the fire ant
was already in five more states (Mississippi,
Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina).
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Fire
ants develop wings in the spring, enabling them to move around and
relocate quickly.
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Fire
ants can move at a rate of 20 to 30 miles per year.
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Any
disturbance to the mound will bring hundreds of crazed fire ants scurrying
to the surface, ready to attack anything that moves.
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Fire
ants sting repeatedly, injecting a small amount of venom with each
sting. They can grasp at the skin with powerful jaws and sting repeatedly
from their abdomen.
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A
fire ant sting results in one or more painful blisters that can remain
for days and often scar.
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Like
a bee sting, fire ant venom causes an allergic reaction in some individuals,
which can be fatal.
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About
10,000 people each year seek medical attention due to fire ant stings.
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Damage
due to fire ants is estimated at tens of millions of dollars annually.
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Livestock
is very susceptible to fire ants during birthing seasons, as fire
ants are attracted to the moisture of a new birth and will attack
and possibly kill a newborn.
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