I was introduced to Texas by fire ants. I stepped out of the car, with a cute pair of strappy sandals on right into a pile of the vile things. Within seconds, I was screaming in pain and whacking my foot trying to get the offending, painful insects off of me. I swear, I almost turned around and moved back to the east cost. That was 1994, and I had never even heard of a fire ant before.
Now I deal with them daily and they are one of the pests I still hate more than any other.
Did you know that fire ant mounds go deep into the ground, two feet or more. The queen hides down there directing the colony to keep her and the babies fed. And when there is a threat to the colony, she packs up the kids and moves, never coming above the ground.
This is why, when you use most fire ant control products it looks like it killed the mound, but then it pops back up two feet away a week later. The queen noticed the top of the mound was dead/dying, so she packed up the kids and left to start over. She's pretty smart, and that's why we hate her.
There are a couple of ways to attack fire ants, slow acting baits take longer to kill the mound. So the queen doesn't notice the colony is dying until she's already been fed the poison herself, and the entire colony dies. The other way is to use a restricted use product, that we pest control providers can spread through your entire lawn and it makes the area uninhabitable for up to a year. Sure, it's a little more expensive, but being able to walk through my yard barefoot, and work in my garden without getting a nasty surprise is so worth it.
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