JUNE 12 2024 /
Humid summers in the Carolinas provide the perfect environment for fire ants to thrive. To live and reproduce, fire ants need water, food, and fire ant queens. If you see a fire ant mound emerge on your lawn or business property after it rains, it will house at least one prolific fire ant queen.
A single fire ant queen can lay 500 to 1000 eggs every day. Within polygyne colonies of fire ants--fire ant mounds with multiple queens--the number of eggs laid daily may reach 10,000 or more.
Queens are visibly larger than worker fire ants. While workers are between 1/4 to 1/16 of an inch long, queens are double that length. Both worker fire ants and fire ant queens have reddish-brown to dark brown bodies.
A fire ant queen will sprout and shed wings at some point in their development. Worker ants remain wingless throughout their short lives. Since fire ant queens do not need food because they metabolize their wing muscles for energy, you won't find a fire ant queen wandering outside the mound.
The only way to eradicate a fire ant infestation is to make sure the queen is killed. Destroying a fire ant mound will only cause the ant colony and their queen to find another location to start another colony. A misplaced colony tends to reestablish its mound near its previous home.
Fire ant queens can live for five years or more, depending on how well their worker ants protect them. One of the many reasons you should never try DIY methods to eliminate fire ants is that a typical fire ant colony may house up to 400,000 worker ants. Disturbing a mound triggers worker ants into defensive mode. They will swarm any human or animal they think is threatening the queen, biting and stinging ferociously. There's a good reason why they are called "fire" ants--their stings feel incredibly painful and hot. Imagine holding a lit match to your skin for just a few seconds. That's what a fire ant sting feels like!
Residents and business owners know they can count on Killingsworth Environmental to eliminate a fire ant infestation inside or outside their homes or commercial buildings. Killingsworth uses industry-based treatments to quickly and permanently eradicate fire ant queens and their workers. Baiting is one method we employ to ensure the queen or queens cannot reproduce. Combining baiting and mound treatment is another effective way to rid your property of stinging fire ants.
Don't waste money on store-bought solutions or risk having an army of angry fire inflict painful bites. Contact Killingsworth Environmental for professional removal of your fire ant infestation.