How to Keep Fire Ants Away From You and Your Home
We did it: we survived the long COVID winter. And now that the spring of COVID has arrived, we are starting to see some changes. It gets a little warmer outside, spring flowers begin to bloom, and the season of fire ants begins. Along with autumn, spring is the time when these tiny, painful pests are most active due to the heating of the soil.
If you are unfamiliar with fire ants and their work, consider yourself in luck. Not only are their bites infernal pain, but they can also cause a whole host of damage to your home in and around it. Here’s what you need to know about these unwanted guests and how to keep them from harming you, your family, and your property.
What you need to know about fire ant bites
Before we get into how to protect your home from fire ants, let’s talk about why you can keep these pests at a distance. In short: sting the fire ants. Repeatedly. According to the resources of Texas A&M University – in particular, the special project they are conducting on fire ants – these pests cannot be contacted. In fact, this is how they put it: “Fire ants are aggressive, will defend themselves by attacking anything that bothers them, and may sting repeatedly.”
Fire ant bites usually include burning, itching, and white pustules that form after a day or two, which are also easily infected and can leave permanent scars. But at least in most cases, the bites are not life-threatening. However, these are not your friendly cartoon ants marching one after the other and feeding on stolen picnic food. Fire ants are serious business.
How to tell if you have fire ants
According to Texas A&M sources, the biggest clue you are dealing with fire ants is their mound. Although most fire ants are several inches tall, intact grassland mounds can reach 18 inches and become more visible a few days after heavy rain.
The mounds are composed of loose, well-cultivated soil and, unlike most ant mounds, do not have a hole in the center. Instead, fire ants come and go from the mound through underground tunnels, like some kind of celebrity of nature.
How to protect your home from fire ants
While there is no “perfect” part of your home for a fire ant infestation, parts containing electrical equipment are some of the worst. Here’s why, according to Texas A&M:
They corrode the insulation and can cause short circuits or disrupt switching mechanisms. Air conditioners, traffic lights and other devices can be damaged. Fire ants also nest in dwellings around electrical and utility facilities. The ants move soil into these structures, causing short circuits and other mechanical problems.
Now that you know what you are looking for and why you want to avoid them, here are some ways to keep fire ants out of your home:
Target the embankment
Once you find the mound, one option is to destroy it. It’s best to do this in the early morning or early evening when fire ants are looking for food, explains David Price, Mosquito Joe CTO and Certified Entomologist David Price in a recent interview with Realtor.com . From here, Price offers three different strategies:
- Fill the mound with a few gallons of hot water or an insecticide mixed with a few gallons of water.
- Apply dust or a granular insecticide to the mound, and then sprinkle it with soil.
- Spreading poisoned bait around the embankment so that the forage ants will return it to the colony and poison their family, friends and colleagues. Price notes that this method is slower than the first two, but also more effective, “because the workers will bait the queen and brood, thus gaining effective control over the colony.”
Elimination of standing water and other moisture
Fire ants love water, so fill in areas of your yard that may tend to collect (and hold) water. Also, repair any leaks in, on, or around your home because fire ants will find them and use them to penetrate the voids of walls and roofs.
Don’t tempt them with your garden
If you have a beautiful garden and want to keep it that way, you need to keep fire ants out of it. In the same article on Realtor.com, Josh Matta, senior biologist and insect expert at Spectrum Brands, suggests several ways to do this, including:
- Tree and shrub care
- Store straw and mulch away from home
- Removing ripe fruits from trees and collecting fallen fruits.
Fire ants are not the insects you want in your garden. Per Matta:
Fire ants can wreak havoc on the garden. This can happen throughout the year and can cause significant damage to crops of soybeans, citrus fruits, corn, okra, beans, cabbage, cucumbers, eggplant, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, sorghum, sunflowers, etc.
Eliminate other food sources
In addition to keeping your garden clean – and keeping the ants from feasting on your crops – Price also recommends getting rid of other food sources, including insects, earthworms, and spiders. Inside the house, Price says the fire ants are also “collecting honeydew and food for sweets, proteins and fats.”
Fill in any cracks or entry points to your home.
Fire ants are tiny and can squeeze into your home quite easily through just about any crevice, hole, or crevice. Price recommends patching up the holes and installing door hinges on the front and garage doors to keep them out of the way.