How to Identify Fire Ants
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Fire ants are sometimes difficult to identify since they resemble ordinary ants. Typically they will measure about 1/8 to ¼ inch in length and are reddish brown or black in color.
Their bodies look like ordinary ants in that they have three sections: head, thorax, abdomen; three pairs of legs; and elbowed antennae. Usually the head will be a lighter color and the abdomen will be much darker.
The most obvious difference between fire ants and their relatives native to the United States is their temperament. Native ants are basically non-aggressive and pretty much ignore humans and animals. Fire ants, on the other hand, are very aggressive. When their nests or mounds are disturbed or perceived to be disturbed they will emerge with a vengeance, biting and stinging any and everything they touch.
They can also be identified by the mound-shaped nests they build. The mounds are at least 12 inches in both diameter and height, although they can be as large as two feet high and two feet wide. The mounds are only a preview of what is living under the ground. Nests underneath the earth will contain galleries, tunnels and chambers that intertwine in depths of one to five feet or more.
Although pests, fire ants do offer benefits. Since they are voracious predators they feed on other pests such as fleas, filth breeding flies, horn flies, boll weevils, sugarcane borers, ticks and cockroaches.
Are they fire ants?
l You see a number of mounds made up of loose soil.
l The emerging ants are dark (usually red or black), small and vary in size.
l They are aggressive and begin to swarm when disturbed.
l The body proportions of the workers are all the same size. In other words, the head will never be larger than the abdomen, no matter how large the ant.
l They sting relentlessly.
l The come in a variety of sizes all within one nest.
l They are brownish black.
l They have no obvious entry hole to their mound or nest.
l The most surefire test? Take a long stick (at least a couple of feet) and shove it into the ant mound. If the ants race up and down the stick trying to attack it, they are fire ants. Obviously, you won't want to hold onto the stick after you put it in - if you do, the ants will climb right onto you.
l Go look at pictures. This site has a whole bunch of pictures of red imported fire ants (a technical name). It also has some pictures of mounds and what they look like in various places. There are also a bunch of others on this other site. There are a few close-ups here.
Sources and Useful Links::
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/fsheet_faq_notice/faq_phifa.html
http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fireants/
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