Fire ants are dreaded creatures because of their painful stings and aggressive nature. Not only can they cause medical emergencies but they also significantly reduce agricultural and livestock output every year in the United States.
It’s important to know how to identify fire ants in order to protect your family and pets from these harmful insects. The size of fire ants can range from 2 to 6 mm and they usually have copper-brown colored bodies with darker abdomens.
If you have such ants in/around your house, then you might have a fire ant infestation. In this article, I’ll explain how to identify fire ants correctly so that you can take the necessary measures to get rid of them.
Identifying Fire Ants by Appearance
There are several fire ant species in the United States, including imported and native fire ant species. Here, we’ll focus on the RIFA (Red Imported Fire Ant) as it’s the most aggressive and dreaded fire ant species.
It’s important to note that there are three different classes of red imported fire ants living in a single colony. These classes include workers, male ants, and the queen.
Most fire ants that you see are workers, wandering around in search of food. Therefore, knowing how to identify workers will help you determine the ant species. You can identify red imported fire ant workers by the following distinguishing features.
- Color: Copper brown/reddish body with a darker abdomen
- Size: Worker fire ants are polymorphic, which means they can have different sizes. But the size of most workers ranges from 2 to 6 millimeters.
- Face: Fire ants have two big black eyes on the top side of their face and there are three teeth located on the head.
- Body: There are no spines on the thorax but two nodes on the petiole
- Antennae: The antennae are 10-segmented with 2-segmented club
- Behavior: Extremely aggressive
If you have a mound in your outdoor area, you can poke it using a long stick to see what type of ants come out. It’ll help you identify whether you have a fire ant infestation or not.
Make sure that you wear long boots while performing this activity. Fire ants are extremely aggressive and they start stinging if they feel threatened or find an intruder in their territory.
See our guide on Red Ants vs Fire Ants where I actually break down the differences in appearance and behavior of several common ants.
Identifying Fire Ants by Mound
There are only a few ant species that build a mound. If you have a mound in your outdoor space, you can use the following tips to determine whether or not it belongs to fire ants.
- Red imported fire ants build mounds of fluffy soil and they usually appear after a few days of heavy rain.
- Most ant species have mounds with an entry/exit hole in the center but that’s not the case with fire ants. These ants use a network of underground tunnels to enter and exit the mound and it doesn’t have a central hole.
- If your yard has hard compact soil, you might see several tunnels (pathways) on the surface of the mound leading into the nest.
- The size (diameter) of fire ant mounds can range from 18 to 30 inches and they’re just a few inches tall. The harder the soil the smaller the mound.
- These ants usually build mounds in open areas but near a big structure or object like a tree or wall. You can also see mounds away from structures in areas with less disturbance.
- Some imported fire ant mounds can also have tiny whitish objects. These are the brood, consisting of pupae, larvae, and eggs.
Identifying Fire Ants by Behavior
Fire ants are far more aggressive than other ant species. When their mound is disturbed, the workers start coming out of the nest, looking for a fight.
If you have an ant mound in your lawn, you can test the ants’ behavior by causing disturbance to the nest to check whether or not it’s a fire ant nest. Never disturb the mound using a part of your body. Instead, use a stick or broom handle for this purpose.
Additionally, make sure that you wear long boots to prevent fire ant stings and move away from the mound quickly. If the mound belongs to fire ants, you’ll see hundreds of ants coming out almost instantly.
Unlike most ant species, fire ants also tend to climb up steep and even vertical surfaces when disturbed. So, you can also observe if the ants are climbing sticks, grass blades, or other vertical surfaces located near the nest.
If you fall victim to a fire ant sting, you’ll feel a tingling or burning sensation and the effects of the sting can last for several days. Additionally, a single fire ant stings multiple times and you’ll see several blisters or pustules filled with white fluid at the sting site.
Collecting Fire Ants for Identification
If you’re still unsure whether or not you’re dealing with fire ants, you can collect a few ants and take them to a local county extension office or qualified insect taxonomist for identification.
You can collect these ants at any time of the year. However, I recommend you consider a warm sunny day and use the following steps.
- Add a few drops of rubbing alcohol to a vial.
- Apply baby or talcum powder to the outer side of dishwashing gloves and long boots and wear them. It’ll prevent ants from reaching your body.
- Stick the vial into the top of a mound and wait at a safe distance. You’ll see worker ants climbing up the vial and they’ll drop into the rubbing alcohol and drown.
- Remove the vial and close it using the cap quickly. Rub off if there are any ants sticking to the outer side of the vial.
Final Words
Fire ants are a serious problem in many areas of the United States. The stings of these ants are painful and they can also lead to a severe allergic reaction in the worst cases.
If you have fire ants on your property, make sure that you take the necessary measures to get rid of them immediately to protect yourself and your family.
But first, you’ll need to use the methods discussed in this guide to identify whether you’re dealing with fire ants or not.
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