Fire ants are a dangerous and unsightly pest that most homeowners will have to deal with. Fire ants can cause damage to lawns and are hazardous to pets and humans. With a painful bite, fire ants are pests that need to be dealt with quickly and carefully.
What Do Fire Ants Look Like?
A dull or dark red body often characterizes fire ants. The ant's body can range from a dark reddish-brown color to a lighter orangish-brown color, similar to a red clay color.
Fire ants often have a thin waist that leads to a large stinge located at the body's rear. Fire ants also have six legs and two antennas that are bent or crooked.
What Do Fire Ant Mounds Look Like?
Fire ant mounds are usually large earthen mounds that range from a few inches tall up to a foot in height if uncontrolled.
Mounds are often constructed of loose dirt that is the byproduct of tunneling conducted by worker ants. As worker ants dig, the remaining soil is transported to the exit point and deposited on the mound's top. The larger the pile, the more mature or more extensive the fire ant colony is.
Fire ant mounds often feature multiple entry and exit points on the outside of the structure. Mounds are usually built in sunny and open spaces, such as lawns and pastures, and are located away from shady or cooler areas.
Fire ant colonies have thousands of ants whose jobs range from worker to protector. Additionally, each fire ant colony will have a single queen.
The queen's role is to produce eggs and grow the colony's size. If a colony's queen dies or is replaced, the settlement will relocate and start fresh in a new location.
A fire ant colony can consist of thousands of ants, up to half a million ants if unchecked.
Fire Ant Killer vs Fire Ant Bait
In the world of ant killer, there are two types of products available. One type kills on contact, the other works much slower.
Fire ant killer, sometimes called ant poison, is intended to quickly kill the ants on contact. Fire ant poison will neutralize worker ants that have exited the mound and made their way into your home, office, car, or anywhere else.
Ant baits, however, feature a slow-acting poison that is embedded in a sweet or starchy granule. Fire ant bait is designed to mimic an ant's food source and attract food-seeking ants.
Worker ants will carry the granules into the mound to feed other ants, spreading the slow-acting poison. Ultimately, the hope is that the queen ant will feast on the pesticide, which destroys the entire colony.
| On-Contact Killer | Ant Bait | |
|---|---|---|
| Kills Quickly | ✅ | |
| Targets Queen | ✅ | |
| Kills the Most Ants | ✅ | |
When is the best time to apply bait for fire ants?
Fire ants are most active when the soil temperatures are in the mid-sixties. This is usually early in the morning or late in the afternoon.
It is essential to give any ant bait product at least twelve hours of rain-free weather, as moisture can lessen the bait granules' attractiveness.
Also, keep in mind that you will continue to see activity in and around the fire ant mound for a few days after application, as ant baits are designed to kill the ants slowly. Total eradication of the mound should occur in no more than seven to ten days post-application.
Top Choice for Killing Fire Ants
We recommend Extinguish Plus Fire Ant Bait to end all of your fire ant problems. Extinguish's product is a fire ant bait that is highly effective at killing the entire colony and not just the worker ants.
We recommend Extinguish Plus because it also contains an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR). Insect growth regulators prevent insects from reproducing. Sterilizing the queen will ensure that the colony will not just move to a new location.
Extinguish’s Plus is a granular product that can be broadcasted at a rate of one and a half pounds per acre or used as a spot treatment as fire ant mounds are spotted.
If a targeted application is chosen, sprinkle a few tablespoons of product evenly around the mound, and that is it! Make sure not to disturb the mound when applying fire ant killer. It is essential to keep foraging ants active and searching for food to take back to the colony.
Top Recommendation: Extinguish Plush
Delayed-reaction ant bait that effectively kills an entire colony.
Best Instant Fire Ant Killer
Hi-Yield's Fire Ant Control is designed to kill fire ants on contact. The product is a fine dust that should be applied to and around mounds at a rate of one to two teaspoons per ant hill.
The one-pound bottle of poison is enough product to kill over one hundred ant colonies! Unlike a fire ant bait, acephate products eliminate ants after ingestion or contact quickly and are not designed to attract ants to the poison.
Hi-Yield's product is best applied in moderate temperatures and after rainfall when ants are the most active. It is important to let all dust settle before allowing other animals or humans in the area. While dust and poisons are designed to kill ants, under certain circumstances quickly, the queen may survive. If the queen survives and not enough worker ants are eliminated, a second treatment may be needed.
Runner Up: Hi-Yield Fire Ant Control
Kills ants on contact. May require more than one treatment if queen survives or not enough worker ants are killed.
Killing Fire Ants Inside Your Home
While finding fire ants inside of your home is rare, it is an occurrence that is important to remedy as soon as possible. Fire ants can gain access to your home through many entry points, such as floor joists, porches, and cracks in doors or windows.
Many times, fire ants in the house live in a nest outside and are foraging for food and nutrients while indoors. Always remove food and water sources that may be attracting fire ants to the interior of your home.
Treating a fire ant infestation inside of your home is a little different than applying granules or powder fire ant killer. It is recommended that you use a jell bait to rid yourself of your fire ant roommates.
Best Product for Killing Fire Ants Inside Your Home
We recommend using Advion Ant Bait Gel to eliminate dangerous fire ants inside of your home.
Advion features Indoxacarb, a patented slow-acting pesticide that is easily spread between ants and can be ingested multiple times without losing any effectiveness. Advion Ant Bait Gel can be applied to cracks and crevasses inside your home without showing.
Other ideal spots for application include door frames, floorboard corners, behind cabinets, around drains, and water pipes or window sills. Gel fire ant killer is less toxic than other ant poison forms, making it an excellent choice for homes with children and pets.
As always, when applying chemicals inside of your home, take proper safety precautions, and follow the manufacturer's instructions for application.
Recommended In-Home Treatment: Advion Ant Bait Gel
Advion is a gel that worker ants can take back to their colony.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take fire ant killer to work?
The fastest fire ant killers are non-bait powdered poisons. Typically, powered ant killers are designed to eliminate ants on contact. While they are extremely effective at killing ants that come into contact with them, non-bait solutions can miss out on killing the queen of the colony or other ants that do not exit the mound.
Is fire ant killer pet safe?
Most fire ant killers are pet safe if the manufacturer's instructions are followed while applying the product. If applying a powdered product, ensure that all dust has settled before allowing pets or humans to enter the area. If you use a gel-based product, apply it where pets cannot easily access it.
How does fire ant killer work?
Most modern fire ant killers work by disrupting the nervous system of the ant, painlessly killing it. Other fire ant killers disrupt the digestive system of the insect.
