ScientificName: Solenopsis invicta

Description: 1/3-inch long, reddish-brown bodies that are clearly segmented.

Habitat/Food: Fire Ants build mounds in open areas or against trees and houses. They eat other insects, sugars, and young seedlings. They will also invade the home, eating whatever scraps they can find.

Life Cycle: Each mound has 20-500 queens that can each produce up to 2,000 eggs a day. The average mound has 80,000 workers.

Organic Control: There are several types of fire ant control such as spinosad, several pyrethrin products, diatomaceous earth, and citrus products.

Interesting Fact: Worker ants leave the mound through tunnels that extend up to 15-25 meters from the mound and 6-12 meters underground. When food is found, the forager returns to the nest, leaving a pheromone trail for others to follow to the food source.