Why Fire Ants Are So Difficult to Control
It can be shocking to walk on your lawn one day and find fire ant mounds where there previously were none, but the reality is that once you see these hills of sand and soil, it’s likely that you’ve had an underground fire ant infestation for up to six months prior. In fact, the mound that you see protruding from your lawn is only a part of the whole picture—the nests they protect can extend several feet into the ground, which helps to regulate temperature and protect the ants below from the elements like rain.
Below the surface, they live and work in a complex network of tunnels that lead to chambers where they store food, lay eggs, and protect the queen. Hidden satellite colonies are often established nearby, making it easy for them to move quickly and reestablish. If you were to draw a picture of an ant hill, you might put a little hole at the top, where the ants enter and exit—but not fire ants! There are no visible openings in a fire ant mound because as they leave to forage (up to 100 feet or more away), they reenter the hill through hidden side tunnels.
Each colony can have one or more queens that lay thousands of eggs, which allows their population to grow quickly. New colonies form when these winged insects swarm and mate in the air before the fertilized queen lands and starts a new nest nearby.
Why Choose Professional Fire Ant Treatments Over DIY
You might be realizing that the name of the game for these insects is “Survival” and they’re pretty good at it. That’s why professional treatments become crucial once you realize you have a problem. It’s ideal to perform a preventative treatment early in the year, before the warm weather days above 70 degrees speed up their metabolism and ability to forage and reproduce.
In areas around Southern Wake County, like Fuquay-Varina and Knightdale, the same mild winters and longer warm seasons we enjoy also create the perfect environment for fire ants to stay active for longer, increasing the need for year-round prevention.
Our fire ant control treatment begins with a thorough inspection to locate problem areas and assess the situation. The treatment that we then apply targets existing fire ant infestations and works to prevent new ones through fire ant bait application. Fire ants think the bait is food and carry it back to the colony, where over time it eliminates the colony. If measures beyond the bait method are needed, liquid insecticide treatments can be applied to individual mounds, but this is typically used as a last resort.
Here are some additional reasons to call in help from Lawn Doctor of Southern Wake County:
- Fire ants often relocate entire colonies after heavy rain or disturbance, moving the queen and brood to higher ground within hours to avoid flooding.
- Their underground colonies can contain hundreds of interconnected chambers, allowing tens of thousands of ants to live and even rebound after a treatment, which makes professional help that much more important.
- During peak summer heat, colonies may move deeper underground to maintain a stable temperature, making surface treatments less effective if timed incorrectly. Making sure you get a treatment early in the year done properly helps prevent trouble later in the year.
Fire Ant Control: Our Treatment Guarantee
The treatments performed by Lawn Doctor of Southern Wake County, based here in Garner, can give you up to one year of protection from a single treatment. Even better, it’s backed by our 100% guarantee, which means that if you have any recurring issues following our visit, we will return to reapply the treatment at no cost to you.
Areas in Southern Wake County Where We Offer Fire Ant Control Services:
- Garner, NC
- Knightdale, NC
- Fuquay-Varina, NC
- Holly Springs, NC
- Clayton, NC
- Willow Springs, NC
- Johnston County, NC
If you live in one of these towns and you’re tired of hopping over fire ant mounds or risking bites every time you try to enjoy your outdoor spaces, then it’s time to give us a call!
