Fire ants dwell in many of the hotter parts of the world and in the majority of countries and in most languages, from Thai to French and English, the word 'fire' is part of its name. This is because the sensation of pain after having been stung, not bitten, by one of these ants is similar to the pain suffered from a burn.
Most ants that produce pain to humans bite first and then spray acid into the wound, but fire ants bite in order to get a grip and then sting with the abdomen. The liquid that they inject is an alkaloid venom which is agonizing to humans.
It is also an insecticide and some observers think that the nurse-worker fire ants spray this toxin over the eggs to ward off infection. Fire ants are easily distinguished by their red to copper-brown heads and dark to black bodies. They are between two and six millimetres in length and their mandibles or jaws look like jagged garden secateurs.
Fire ants build nests in the ground and often build up big mounds of earth, although sometimes this is concealed by a fallen tree of a pile of vegetation. The nests can be five feet deep and the mounds over a foot above ground. They prefer moist to damp ground, so the colonies can often be found on the banks of a river, on the edge of a pond or on a well-watered lawn. The nests are founded by one or more queens and can very rapidly mature to thousands of ants.
If you have fire ants in your house or garden, you will almost certainly want to get rid of them. This is not so hard, but if you do not destroy every colony, then one of two surviving queens can make a new colony of thousands of ants in about a month. There are loads of poisons to eradicate ants on the market, and if you want to try an almost guaranteed chemical ant killer, choose one of those.
Otherwise you may want to try one of the following home treatments.
Nematodes are very small insects that live in moist soil. They eat other insects including ants. You can buy nematodes in a garden centre or on line. Mix them with rain, not tap water, because chlorine will kill them, then pour this water into the nest. The nematodes will have killed the ants within roughly two weeks. This is a wholly green method of killing fire ants.
Some people rely on club soda. Pour a bottle of club soda into the nest, the gas that the soda makes is said to kill the queen and the reproductive ants.
Soapy water is also said to kill ants. Use the same bowl of soapy washing up water and tip it into the colony, the soap is believed to kill them outright.
Boric acid is repellent to ants. so you can sprinkle it around the foundation of your house and around the nest.
There are quite a few organic ways of getting rid of fire ants, if you want to find out more, look on the Internet.
Most ants that produce pain to humans bite first and then spray acid into the wound, but fire ants bite in order to get a grip and then sting with the abdomen. The liquid that they inject is an alkaloid venom which is agonizing to humans.
It is also an insecticide and some observers think that the nurse-worker fire ants spray this toxin over the eggs to ward off infection. Fire ants are easily distinguished by their red to copper-brown heads and dark to black bodies. They are between two and six millimetres in length and their mandibles or jaws look like jagged garden secateurs.
Fire ants build nests in the ground and often build up big mounds of earth, although sometimes this is concealed by a fallen tree of a pile of vegetation. The nests can be five feet deep and the mounds over a foot above ground. They prefer moist to damp ground, so the colonies can often be found on the banks of a river, on the edge of a pond or on a well-watered lawn. The nests are founded by one or more queens and can very rapidly mature to thousands of ants.
If you have fire ants in your house or garden, you will almost certainly want to get rid of them. This is not so hard, but if you do not destroy every colony, then one of two surviving queens can make a new colony of thousands of ants in about a month. There are loads of poisons to eradicate ants on the market, and if you want to try an almost guaranteed chemical ant killer, choose one of those.
Otherwise you may want to try one of the following home treatments.
Nematodes are very small insects that live in moist soil. They eat other insects including ants. You can buy nematodes in a garden centre or on line. Mix them with rain, not tap water, because chlorine will kill them, then pour this water into the nest. The nematodes will have killed the ants within roughly two weeks. This is a wholly green method of killing fire ants.
Some people rely on club soda. Pour a bottle of club soda into the nest, the gas that the soda makes is said to kill the queen and the reproductive ants.
Soapy water is also said to kill ants. Use the same bowl of soapy washing up water and tip it into the colony, the soap is believed to kill them outright.
Boric acid is repellent to ants. so you can sprinkle it around the foundation of your house and around the nest.
There are quite a few organic ways of getting rid of fire ants, if you want to find out more, look on the Internet.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on many topics, but is at present involved with how to kill fire ants. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Killing Carpenter Ants.
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