Fire Ants – Home Invasion Nightmare
Fire ants are just crazy, but they are not ‘crazy ants’ – those are another type of ant that pesters Bryan and College Station residents. Fire ants are perhaps the worst type of ant to have around your home or your yard. For one thing, their sting is venomous, and they do sting rather than bite. Ants are relatives to bees and wasps and the females of most species have venom. In the case of the fire ant, the venom causes necrotic damage – It kills cells.
The Invasive Nature of Fire Ants
As far as ants go, fire ants are highly invasive. They are very focused on establishing a territory and defending it. That behavior has led to a crisis in many states because the number of mounds per yard is growing. Fire ants are killing off or displacing native ants, which were bad enough. Fire ants are worse. Not only is their sting painful, but it can be dangerous – especially to kids and pets.
Because fire ants are so successful at taking over other ant species territories, they have unlimited resources. They eat seeds and young plants and with competition for food or natural predators, fire ants have a wide-open space in which to breed, colonize and continue their mad scheme of taking over the world. The question for homeowners is, is your yard on the front line of this war?
What You Can Do to Deter Fire Ants
There is not much you can do to deter fire ants beyond being very proactive in keeping new colonies under control. This means being on the look out for new mounds and then taking aggressive action before the colony is well-established. There are a few home chemicals that work but they are dangerous if not used properly, especially to pets. They also have a negative impact on other types of beneficial insects such as bees.
What you should not do is follow some of the crazy advice found on the inter net to control fire ants. Do not set the mound on fire with gasoline. Do not use chemicals that are not intended for ant control on any type of ants. If you have fire ants, then contact our professionals to come and determine the size of the infestation and to talk with you about how to control the colony. The deal with fire ants and ants in general is that they use a cast system. The mount and inner chambers of the colony protect the queen and many of her workers. What people kill are the foragers and soldiers and while that can help reduce their numbers it does not destroy the colony. To effectively control fire ants, you need a professional.
Reach out to our team with questions about pest control and specifically for fire ants and other dangerous pests. We service the entire Bryan and College Station community and the surrounding areas too. We offer same day appointments and ongoing services which is a benefit when you are dealing with fire ants.
