Fire ants make it challenging to enjoy your lawn, whether you are relaxing with a good book, playing with the kids, or doing yard work. The small, reddish-brown ants inflict painful bites and can swarm aggressively. Here’s some pest control advice on preventing or treating an infestation.

How to Spot a Colony

Like other ants, fire ants make their nests, or mounds, in open areas that receive significant heat, including the sides of roads, driveways, and lawns. Their underground tunnel systems extend up to 25 feet from mounds with queen fire ants laying up to 1,500 eggs per day. Infestations subsequently spread quickly without timely identification and eradication.

Unlike other ant colonies, fire ant versions can look like gopher and mole mounds and don’t have central openings or any other visible holes. Mounds can be up to three feet high and two feet wide.

Look for activity in the early morning and late evening when worker ants are foraging. Once you identify a mound, don’t disturb it. You may sustain bites and the ants will simply create a mound elsewhere on your property.

How to Treat Colonies

Use stakes to mark ant colonies and schedule lawn spraying with a pest control company. Lawn spraying with insecticide kills the ants and prevents them from returning.

Ask your pest control company to use a residual insecticide that lasts three months or more. The technicians apply the spray in the early morning or late evening due to foraging reasons to kill the most ants.

They’ll also recommend a treatment schedule that ensures the insects don’t return to your lawn. Depending on the degree of the current infestation, they may spray your entire property.

If you’re combating fire ants, termites, roaches, rodents, or other unwelcome pests, make an appointment with GreenTec Pest Control in Port Richey, FL. These pest control experts use non-toxic products and offer military, firefighter, police, and first responder discounts. Call (727) 847-6733 to schedule service, or request a quote online.