Identifying Fire Ants and Addressing the Problem

June 02nd, 2015

With their painful stings and unsightly mounds, fire ants are dreaded by homeowners across Florida. When a fire ant mound is disturbed, hundreds of these aggressive insects can flood out, inflicting a nasty sting on animals or people unlucky enough to be nearby. The good news is that fire ants can be eradicated. However, it’s vital that this is done safely and professionally, as you’re at risk of injury if you attempt the job yourself.

How Do You Know if Your Property is Infested with Fire Ants?

Considering their aggressive nature, fire ants are one pest you will want to quickly identify, so they can be banished from your home. The following points will help you to establish whether your property is infested with fire ants. But it’s important to be extremely careful; fire ants are aggressive and inflict painful stings.

1) Varied size. Unlike most ant species, which are uniform in size, fire ants’ sizes vary. As a general rule, they’re normally between an eighth and a quarter of an inch long.

2) Aggressiveness. Fire ants bite before injecting venom with their stingers. If you have been stung you may experience a tingling sensation. A puss-filled blister may develop a day or two after the attack.

3) Mounds with no visible opening.  While other ants create openings in the centre of their mounds, fire ants access theirs with underground tunnels.

4) White objects in the mound. Sometimes, white objects can be seen in the mounds of fire ants. These are developing ants’ eggs and larvae, and are a tell-tale sign of a fire ant’s nest.

Say Goodbye to Fire Ants

If fire ants have already established themselves at your property, you are advised to contact a pest control company to ensure that the problem is dealt with quickly and effectively. If you’d like to discuss how to solve your fire ant problem, call Green Solutions on 813-684-7336.