Ah fire ants. Responsible for so much destruction and pain. These little invasive insects are aggressive, quick to establish a mound, and can cause anaphylactic reactions in many people. Many parents are deathly afraid to allow their children to play outside in the yard if they know they have fire ant mounds. Fire ants are invasive in the United States and can be distinguished from other ants locally present, by their copper brown head and body with a darker abdomen. The worker ants are blackish to reddish. (Wikipedia).
Not all fire ant colonies have mounds. As a matter of fact, the mounds are generally only found in open areas like a lawn or a pasture. Fire ant colonies can be founded by a single queen and rapidly expand to thousands of ants, or they can be established by a group of queens and will expand even more rapidly. Because of their highly aggressive nature, they often drive out natural species and can be difficult to eliminate. There are many options available to folks. In the past I have had great success with Over N Out fire ant killer but I no longer use it for a few reasons. One the product used to utilize fipronil but that was discontinued and it now uses bifenthrin which I have found to be far less effective in controlling fire ants (although it is helpful in preventing ticks). Even more important to us is that we are moving away from chemicals so we started exploring natural remedies. If you wish to try a treatment method you can try The Dirt Doctor’s long term control options. You can also try the method of turning them against one another and letting them kill each other off as Budget 101 suggests. Many people swear by this method but I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t guarantee that it will work. Whatever method you chose, I hope that you have great success with it so that you can reclaim your lawn, garden, or pasture. Have a great day and God bless!