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It’s a question that unsuspecting visitors to the Southern U.S. will invariably ask: what are those weird mounds of dirt everywhere? Those, my friend, are fire ant hills…so watch where you step.
What's so terrible about this little ant? Well, to start with, they are incredibly aggressive. Disturb or (heaven forbid) step on one of their mounds and you will quickly be under attack.
The nasty nature of the imported fire ant is damaging both ecologically and economically. The FDA estimates that more than $5 billion is spent annually on medical treatment, damage, and control due to fire ant infestations. The ants cause approximately $750 million in damage annually to livestock and crops.
The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) is present as an invasive pest in many areas of the world, including the U.S., Australia, the Philippines, China and Taiwan. It came to the U.S. in the 1930s by hitching a ride on a Brazilian cargo ship that landed in a Mobile, Alabama port. The ants have since spread to most areas of the Southern and Southeastern United States.
Residents of infested areas of the country are all too familiar with the emergence of this pest. After a heavy rain, countless fire ant mounds will rise to the soil surface and dot the landscape. This is a result of worker ants' need to move the temperature -sensitive young ants up high when conditions are wet. When the ground is dry, they move the brood deeper to more humid chambers and you may see no mounds at all...although the ants themselves are still there. Mounds can extend as much four feet below the surface.
No doubt about it, if you are ever bitten/stung by a fire ant, you won't forget it. Fire ants are different from other ant species in the way they bite you - first they chomp down with their mandibles just to get a good grip, then they sting. And they sting repeatedly. The feeling is comparable to being burned with a cigarette...excruciating.
Each bite/sting will form into an itchy, painful, pimple-like pustule. Scratching can cause an infection, so try to resist the urge. Hydrocortisone creams will help sooth itching. Some have reported that dabbing Listerine on bites will sooth itching and pain.
Severe allergic reaction can also occur, especially in the case of multiple stings. Be mindful of any unusual symptoms - like excessive swelling, difficulty breathing, etc. - following a sting. If these occur, head for the hospital.
In gardening terms, these little beasts are not easy to control. Here are some tips:
First, assess the extent of your fire ant problem. Are there mounds all over your yard? Is it impossible for you to dig anywhere in your garden without getting swarmed? If so, I certainly sympathize.
A widespread fire ant problem needs to be dealt with immediately. You'll want to purchase a large amount of fire ant bait and broadcast it over your property with a spreader. Make sure the weather is dry and will remain dry for the next several days.
The best bait products I've found also happen to be organic: choose any bait product containing the natural biological control called Spinosad. This product - sometimes also packaged under the name ‘Conserve' -- was originally marketed as an organic worm and caterpillar control, but shows great success in killing fire ants as well. It is not dangerous to plants, pets or people and is available in either granular or concentrated liquid form.
For those with either a widespread or just occasional mound problem, applying Spinosad bait directly on and around each mound is a good idea too. The idea is for the worker ants to take the bait down into the ground to the queen ant. Once she eats it and dies, the rest of the mound's population will eventually die as well.
A canister of Spinosad containing 16 ounces of dry granules will cover 22 individual mounds or up to 10,000 square feet. Use about 4 tablespoons for each mound. If you are applying with a broadcast spreader, use 3/4 of a cup for each 1,000 square feet. If using a liquid product, follow the directions on the side.
However, a problem remains in that some mounds can contain more than one queen. Therefore, you must be diligent in your bait application, which can take about six weeks to start working. A drench of orange oil on each mound is also a good follow-up. (Texas A&M researchers affectionately call this the "Texas Two-Step" method.) Some folks pour boiling water over mounds, but this technique is a little dangerous and doesn't guarantee the death of the queen(s). It'll kill everything else in the vicinity, though...including your grass.
Ignore the folksy recommendations about applying grits, rice, aspartame, or instant oatmeal to mounds. Take it from somebody who's tried a lot of weird methods: these don't work. The colony may get annoyed and move, but they're still there.
Scientists are working tirelessly to develop a specific species of Phorid fly called Pseudacteon. These little predators have a grim but helpful habit: they live to frighten and kill fire ants. After a Phorid fly lays her eggs in a fire ant, the emerging larvae makes its way into the ant's head and then proceeds to eat out the inside of the head. Eventually, the head falls off and out comes a new fly. Sounds like either a horror film or some perverse torture method from the Dark Ages, doesn't it?
Tallegeda County in Alabama and some areas in Texas have already seen populations of the phorid fly begin to flourish. While it may not wipe out the imported fire ant problem, the emergence of the otherwise harmless Phorid fly is definitely a step in the right direction.
I am an avid organic gardener and certified Master Gardener for Collin County, Texas (that's North Dallas).
Despite those lofty titles, I still manage to kill stuff on a regular basis. My gardening experiences are periodically chronicled on my blog at: http://can-u-dig-it.blogspot.com
Posted by olddog (from Colfax, LA) on April 15, 2008 at 7:49 PM:
It is a fact that Fire Ants KILL Red Bugs and Ticks. Ranchers in Texas that killed all the Fire Ants have been losing calves to Ear ticks and are reintroducing Fire Ants to their ranges.
I kill only the Ants near the house because I hate the Red Bugs more !
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Posted by TexasTam (from Plano, TX) on April 16, 2008 at 12:17 PM:
Fireants are good for outdoor flea control too. Nearly every insect has a purpose, either as food for others or as a valuable predator.
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Posted by Sterling_tx (from Fort Worth, TX) on April 21, 2008 at 12:54 PM:
I recently tried an organic method for controlling fire ants....and if you haven't tried it, this is what to do. Sprinkle instant grits on the mound......that's it. Just dry grits on the mound (in dry weather, not after a rain) and the ants apparently eat the grits and then expire. I've tried it and it works!! And it's organic!
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Subject: Houston-Area Fire Ants
Posted by LeslieT (from Bellaire, TX) on April 15, 2008 at 4:06 PM:
In my yard, they don't build mounds; instead they infest my raised beds. This means that you don't know they're present until they swarm out to attack. I've used Amdro and Logic, but because my neighbors won't treat the ants are an ongoing problem. Another organic solution is a mixture of liquid agricultural molasses and orange oil (the problem with this is the orange oil hurts the earthworms). The ants move on immediately (those that survive the drench). The interesting thing about using the molasses/orange oil solution is that it improves the soil. One spot in a bed was particularly attractive to fire ants and I treated it multiple times over a year or two . . . . voila . . . . that's now the "best" spot in the bed for plants.
Leslie
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Posted by TexasTam (from Plano, TX) on April 16, 2008 at 12:15 PM:
Hi Leslie,
Yeah, that's the only time I see fireants in my yard is when I'm digging in a bed. Thankfully those instances are few and far between. I applied nematodes to the yard when we first moved in a couple of years ago and I'm convinced that help keep the lawn fireant free; unfortunately, I didn't treat the flowerbeds.
I've heard the molasses and orange oil mixture works - Howard Garrett recommends that method, I believe.
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Subject: Fire Ants
Posted by mamoriah (from Maitland, FL) on April 15, 2008 at 11:35 AM:
Please forgive me if this sounds crude, but has anyone tried urinating on a fire ant bite/sting to see if that takes away the pain [i.e. Chandler from "Friends" when he peed on the jelly-fish sting]? I was wondering if the ph of the urine would remove the sting. Seriously! [And, yes, I know the TV show was "pretend."]
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Posted by TexasTam (from Plano, TX) on April 15, 2008 at 11:39 AM:
Great question, and yes I've heard this really works. While we were in Belize a couple of years ago, my husband and I met a woman at our hotel who'd been out on a scuba excursion and she stepped on and was stung by a scorpion fish - very painful and poisonous. They were miles from anywhere and couldn't get her to a doctor immediately. She said the pain was excruciating. Someone recommended this "treatment" and while everyone was hesitant to offer their "sample" one guy eventually came through...and she said the pain went away instantly. The ammonia in urine is what neutralizes the pain. Not sure about the itch, though. Fire ant bites also itch intensely!!
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Posted by mamoriah (from Maitland, FL) on April 22, 2008 at 10:02 AM:
Dear Texas Tam, Thanks for your response! I wonder what would happen if we peed on the ANTS! : ) Blessings!
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Subject: Fire Ants
Posted by nativeviv (from Lafayette, LA) on April 14, 2008 at 4:34 PM:
I live in south Louisiana and have started a fire ant remediation program in our neighborhood. The article is good, but you need to mention that spinosad is an insecticide which affect the central nervous system of the ants and contained in Ortho Fire Ant Killer and other readily available products. There are also Insect Growth Regulators (IGR) (ie methoprene, pyriprpxyfen) available as Award, Logic, Extingush, Distance and Spectracide Fier Ant Bait, which deliver a sterilization compound to the queen who then produces sterile eggs. The latter takes longer to have an effect (you have to go through a complete egg laying cycle), but is more permanent. It works great as a neighborhood treatment and in our neighborhood we have done this for 2 years and now have very few fire ants. This IGR comes mixed with a bait like grits, and is broadcast throughout the yards. My 1/4 acre only needed 1/2 cup of this product. The ants will travel up to 250 feet when they are foraging in the spring and fall, bring it back to the queen, who ingests it, and then lays infertile eggs. You start the first treatment in either spring or fall, then do another at the next forage either spring or fall, and after that only once a year. It is not put on the mounds, but broadcast across the yards. (Queens and most of the hives are way underground or under your driveway, patios and walkways). This method is much more cost effective (about $5 per yard) and more environmentally sound than treating with insecticide continually. It also is safer around people and animals as the only thing it impacts negatively is the queen.
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Subject: fire ants
Posted by CCLLYYDDEE (from Lanark Village, FL) on April 14, 2008 at 3:58 PM:
If you need to dig where there is a mound, put a lot of ice on the mound and wait until the ice melts before digging. I did this with a rose bush that was in the center of a mound, and watched as soldier ants would try to bite the ice and die of hypothermia. Within half an hour there was no evidence of live ants at all, including in the root ball of the rose. Another thing that I noticed is that they interbreed with local ants - one year we had stinging sugar ants falling on us from our sugar maple. After that season the sugar fire ants disappeared and we could sit under our maple without brushing off falling ants of any kind. And another observation is that they interbred with tiny black ants, and instead of forming mounds, formed granular 'tunnels' on the surface. These ants had the most persistent aftereffects of stings, and definitely took the pleasure out of gardening barefooted.
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Subject: Fire Ants and ticks in the Hill Country
Posted by mfpinlh (from Lakehills, TX) on April 14, 2008 at 1:40 PM:
I agree with most of what was said in Tamara's article. There has been one small benefit, at least for me, from the invasion. The ticks which were so prevalent in the mountain cedar (juniper) areas of Texas seem to have disappeared. If you were ever here as a kid (I'm 61) you will remember mom checking you all over for ticks and always finding some! If I had to choose between controlling fire ants or living with ticks, I'll fight the fire ants! Thanks for the nice article, Tamara!
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Posted by TexasTam (from Plano, TX) on April 15, 2008 at 11:58 AM:
Thanks, and you're right - there is some benefit in the existance of fire ants. In addition to wiping out ticks, they will also eradicate any outdoor flea problem you might have.
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Subject: Soda Water
Posted by girlgroupgirl (from Atlanta, GA) on April 14, 2008 at 1:23 PM:
A wonderful organic control for fire ants is Soda Water! Local Atlanta garden guru Walter Reeves mentioned this, after we had fire ants in our church greenhouse. We needed a plant drench but didn't want a chemical drench. Soda Water worked great, and it has been working well on this years mounds in the driveway cracks too!!
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Subject: Fire Ants & Blood Meal
Posted by NatureWalker (from Binghamton, Twilight, NY) on April 12, 2008 at 3:00 PM:
I told my Mother, who lives in Terrill, Texas. To use some on the Fire Ants "Hills." They truely die, I don't know why, but they do. I learned about it somewhere on the web; but I don't recall where. And I also read it in a "Jerry Baker" gardening book too. When it Rains, it just washes it into the soil more. But just reapply it once a week.
Blood Meal is something you would like to use in your garden; because all plants love it!
BTW - Mom says it works!!
~* Robin
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Posted by babesy (from Arlington, TX) on May 22, 2008 at 8:03 AM:
I had a friend in Arizona who told me that one of his co-workers lost his dog from eating Blood Meal.
They put it out one day, and the dog got into it and ate it. The dog's blood pressure skyrocketed, he was so sick, the family rushed him to the vet who worked all afternoon unsuccessfully to save his life. Sad.
I won't use it in my yard for just that reason. It may be good, but not at the cost of my animal's lives.
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Subject: They're coming
Posted by melody (from Benton, KY) on April 12, 2008 at 11:53 AM:
We're just starting to see a few stragglers here in south west KY, but they are definitely on the move in this direction. Thanks for the great article. I'll remember it if the time comes for me to need it here.
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Subject: Clorox on the stings!
Posted by SCNewbie (from Anderson, SC) on April 12, 2008 at 1:16 AM:
I got this tip from a cousin right after I moved to SC. Take a tissue, cotton ball, or something similar and wet it with Clorox, then wipe your sting. In my case, it got rid of the stinging within a minute. :))
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Posted by podster (from Deep East Texas, TX) on April 12, 2008 at 6:50 AM:
Thanks for the informative article on these little buggers!
OOooohhhh, this article will get response from the south! Who amongst us hasn't been nailed by fireants! It seems like they swarm all over my body. I don't notice it till the leader says 3, 2, 1, BITE! They all seem to sting simultaneously.
SCNewbie ~ a few years back, a friend who works outdoors alot said to put a piece of ice on it for just a minute or so. They started doing that as they had water coolers handy with ice. Said it will quit burning and won't fester later. Now, if I get stung, I head for the frig. For me, it has worked.
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Posted by tmbolin (from crossville, TN) on April 12, 2008 at 8:47 AM:
They are just now starting to show up in my neck of the woods. Dad was just saying the other day that he wondered what it would ttake to kill them. Thanks for the timely info.
This message was edited Apr 12, 2008 7:54 AM
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Posted by catmad (from Pelzer, SC) on April 12, 2008 at 8:52 AM:
Sigh. Guess the aspartame is not going to work, huh? $.99 down the drain. But, the Spinosad is on order, so there's hope! Thanks for the timely info....
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Posted by Yuska (from San Antonio, TX) on April 12, 2008 at 11:54 AM:
I dispense with the mounds in my yard by pouring a kettle of boiling water into the main entry hole. The results are instantaneous - the ants and mound disappear. For a very large mound a second kettle follows, just to be sure. Last year I had only two mounds all season.
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Posted by pajaritomt (from Los Alamos, NM) on April 12, 2008 at 1:08 PM:
I, too, use a pot of boiling water with good effect, but like the idea of the biological control. I hope to see more of that kind of thing. If you have a 50 acre pasture, the boiling water would take forever to solve the problem.
I put ammonia on the bites and that seems to help.
Grr, fire ants!
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on April 12, 2008 at 2:53 PM:
Yikes, I've never heard of these things before! Where did they come from? (Who would want them?) hiding in New England, Carrie
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Posted by Yuska (from San Antonio, TX) on April 12, 2008 at 3:29 PM:
They came from South America, apparently, and absolutely nobody wants them. They're
sensitive to cold, so you're safe for now, Carrie. They go underground in winter- we have freezes here but rarely is the actual soil affected, at least much below the surface. They seem to be adapting and moving farther north, however. My brother reports that we now have some mounds on our farm in southern Oklahoma (zone 7b).
You're right, of course, pajaritomt, large spaces need special help. And to the extent that we can spare the good critters when we're battling the bad ones we are obligated to do so. How long have you had them in your zone 5a location?
This message was edited Apr 12, 2008 2:34 PM
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on April 12, 2008 at 5:16 PM:
But if they're in z. 5a, they may be here any day! Although, there is a lot of z. 7 - 6 to get through before they reach Massachusetts - they'll have to work their way up the East coast. Still, this is alarming news. Unless they climb up the mountains from Albuquerque every summer? xx, Carrie
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Posted by Yuska (from San Antonio, TX) on April 12, 2008 at 5:39 PM:
Juist how far they've spread is possibly a subject for debate, but this Wikipedia article shows one map -
Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on April 12, 2008 at 5:53 PM:
Well, it looks like I had better cancel my plans to move somewhere warmer! (No such plans exist to date.) xx, Carrie
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Posted by pajaritomt (from Los Alamos, NM) on April 12, 2008 at 8:28 PM:
I don't have fire ants in Zone 5a! In fact, my zone is now 6 -- since they recalculated all the zones in the US. In addition, if you look at that Wikipedia map, they show fire ants extending even north of Los Alamos, but in truth, I have never seen a fire ant in New Mexico. I understand there is one nursery in Southern New Mexico that is infested because they got a load of infested trees from Texas. I am told that they haven't spread beyond that nursery. They certainly aren't north of Albuquerque and I haven't heard of them in Albuquerque, but possibly things have changed.
My experience with fire ants come from growing up in New Orleans, La and in Mississippi. I have a farm in Southern Mississippi, Lumberton, which is zone 8. It has fire ants and I got some painful bites when I was there less than a week ago. I have used the boiling water treatment there -- also the ammonia treatment on the bites. The cortizone, does help the itching but the pain doesn't go away until you get some ammonia into the bite itself. I am healing, but I still have some red places two weeks after the bites. I decided to wear higher socks after I got the bites so I wouldn't get any more, but that made the ones I already had worse. That's when I covered them with ammonia. I could tell the difference immediately.
You'd think after all these years I would learn to watch out for them, but they are pretty hard to see. I was gathering sticks which turned out to be infested, in order to build a small fire.
Anyhow, if you get fire ants, you will catch on right away. They are tiny and red and the description in the article of their bites is 100% accurate.
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Posted by carrielamont (from Milton, MA) on April 12, 2008 at 9:43 PM:
I'll bet that wikipedia map doesn't take altitude into consideration at all - but thanks for clarifying!!
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Posted by holly_grower (from Bear, DE) on April 14, 2008 at 12:04 PM:
Thanks for this article. I used to think we were safe from these things - one thing to be thankful for as we shiver through winter! But we had one instance in 2007 in northern Delaware (Zone 7a) of a fire ant colony which apparently came in on container-grown nursery stock from the South. It survived a mild winter and had gotten well-established before it was eliminated. Last winter (2007-2008) was even milder for us, so I'd not be surprised to see a lot more of them in our neck of the woods.
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Posted by pajaritomt (from Los Alamos, NM) on April 14, 2008 at 12:22 PM:
It appears that they do get transmitted through nursery stock. Hopefully, the nurseries that ship them will be informed that they need to get rid of the ants!
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Posted by DILLY (from Jesup, GA) on May 8, 2008 at 7:13 PM:
I was using Clorox on fire ant bites, and getting bleached spots on my clothes.
Found out the reason it worked is because it is strongly alkaline.
But then so is ammonia. I have been using that for years.
Since it just needs to get to the acidic toxin; no need on the skin at large, I use for an applicator a length of plastic coated clothesline wire (to give wire end a bit of diameter) dipped into and quickly out and onto the bite with a wee scrubbing action.
It works for bee stings too. In the 1950's in Los Angeles I had a ground cover plant (Lippia repens) with little flowers in summer that attracted bees (and little children, who in turn, attracted the bees). I used a dab of Clorox on a long stick Q-tip and kept chldren happy.
Remembered to try that for fire ant bites in Georgia many years later.
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Posted by SCNewbie (from Anderson, SC) on May 8, 2008 at 10:00 PM:
Cool - I'll try the ammonia next time, then. Thanks!
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Subject: HATE THOSE THINGS!!!!!
Posted by 1cros3nails4gvn (from Bluffton, SC) on April 12, 2008 at 12:18 AM:
thanks this was really informative. i will definitely put this to use! i got attacked seven times last weekend and was completely covered in those "pimple-like pustules" you mentioned. it was like an army of cigarette butts, which you also mentioned, crawling up my hands arms legs and feet! one time there was a very heavy rain storm brought by a hurrican, which flooded the low lying areas in my friend's yard. he and his neighbor went swimming, but had no clue that the ants had not died, but were simply floating on the surface. needless to say, they didn't stay in very long, and won't be forgetting that experience very soon even when you grow up around them like me and him did, and they are a part of your daily life almost, you never really ever get used to them
PS thanks again
PPS these love to live in pots that are sitting on the ground, especially after rain, or if the soil in that area is wet, so be careful everyone!!!
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Posted by SCNewbie (from Anderson, SC) on April 12, 2008 at 11:58 AM:
I learned about the pots the hard way last summer, and eeewwwwwwwwwww about swimming with floating fire ants!! That gives me the heeby-jeebys!!
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Posted by Yuska (from San Antonio, TX) on April 12, 2008 at 3:41 PM:
They are also fond of compost piles, soft soil and newly disturbed ground. People who move into new housing subdivisions where the bulldozers have scraped off the native vegetation usually have to deal with a plethora of mounds for several years.
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Posted by jvdl1 (from Englewood, FL) on April 14, 2008 at 4:59 PM:
I read somewhere that the ant bite "pustules" are actually white corpuscles fighting the infection. Scratching them open could lead to infection. most of the stuff I've used on the ant mounds just moves them into my neighbors yard.
