About Fire Ants
Learn more about the biology of imported red fire ant colonies to understand pest control challenges!
- Colonies of imported red fire ants consist of the brood plus several types of adults.
- Queens (there may be multiple queens per colony) are large, wingless ants.
- Worker ants are wingless, sterile females that tend the larvae and protect the queen(s) by defending the nest from intruders.
- Workers also feel the queen(s) and move her when she is endangered.
- Winged males have black bodies and smaller heads than females.
- Reproductive males and females are winged.
Imported red fire ants -- adaptive survivors
There are two kinds of fire ants -- single and multiple queen forms. Workers in single-queen colonies are territorial, while workers in multiple-queen colonies move freely from one mound to another. Areas infested with single queen colonies contain 40 to 150 mounds per acre, and usually no more than 7 million ants. But in areas with multiple queen colonies, 200 or more mounds may be home to 40 million ants per acre.
(picture of fire ant)
Fire ant mounds can be built in most any type of soil, but the ants prefer open, sunny areas such as lawns, parks, pastures, meadows and cultivated fields. Depending on the type of soil, mounds can be up to 18 inches high. They can also be formed in rotting logs, around stumps and trees and in or under buildings.
Moisture is key to fire ant survival. When the weather is hot and dry, they burrow deep into the soil to find moisture and cooler temperatures. When it's cold, they burrow down to stay warm. But in warm, damp weather (spring or fall), fire ants are most likely to be active, foraging near the soil surface and building mounds.
Colonies often move from one site to another. Queens need only half a dozen workers to start a new colony, and a new mound can develop several hundred feet from the old site overnight.
See a map of the potential range of the Red Imported Fire Ant.
Read more about red fire ants and ongoing research efforts to control them.
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