
Preventing Ant Infestations
July 27, 2021
Preventing Fall Pests
September 25, 2021Fire ants are a prevalent type of ant in the southeast. Fire ant is a general term used for over 280 different species with similar characteristics. Fire ants build massive colonies and will swarm and attack anything or anyone they view as a threat to their colony, which is part of what makes them so dangerous. Fire ants are venomous and that venom can cause an allergic reaction in people that can be serious or even fatal.
So, what else do you need to know about fire ants? Let’s take a look.
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Fire ants build their nests underground with mounds of dirt above the surface.
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Fire ants build very large colonies, often numbering 250,000 individuals or more.
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They are called fire ants because of their red color and the painful burn of their bite.
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Most people feel great discomfort from a fire ant bite while others have allergic reactions that can be fatal, especially if they’ve been attacked by a swarm.
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Some colonies can have multiple queens. A single queen can lay as many as 1,600 eggs in one day, which makes extermination a difficult task.
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Fire ants are omnivores. They eat plant but they will also attack and eat small animals as well.
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Fire ants are well known for attacking other bugs. They often target a specific species of bee, enter the hive and eat all of the hive’s food resources, causing the bees to starve to death. This behavior has brought that species of bee to the edge of extinction.
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In a flood, the fire ants connect together to form a sort of raft of worker bees that floats on the water and transports a queen to a safer, dry place to begin creating a new colony.
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The only known predator of the fire ant is the phorid fly. The fly lays eggs on the ant’s thorax and the larvae eat into the ant, eventually reaching its head and killing it.