Fire
Ants
Fire
ants are probably among the more vicious of the ant colony.
They bite; and their bites, (like how the English would
put it) stings like the devil!!! Generally, a fire
ant has an aggressive nature and when disturbed, is quick to
attack people and animals.
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Fire
ants look very much like ordinary house or garden ants, about
0.04 to 0.125 of an inch long.
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The
Little Fire Ant is tan and the
Imported Fire Ant is red and black. The Southern Fire
ant is reddish brown. Any of these can nest under the slab
of a patio, garage or town house.
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Difference
from the other house species: their excruciating stings.
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The
fire ant grips the skin with its mandibles or jaws and stings
its victim several times in a circular pattern around the
point of mandible attachment.
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The
fire ant's sting injects toxic venom (similar to that of wasps,
hornets and bees), which causes a painful, burning sensation.
The venom contains alkaloids with relatively little protein,
which is different compare to other stinging insects' venom.
Most individuals who are stung will experience a swollen area
followed by a growth of a pustule in a day or so which may
become infected.
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In
some cases, individuals may become hypersensitive to proteins
in fire ants venom and upon subsequent stings, develop allergic
reactions.
The
greatest danger the fire ant's venom poses is to young
children, due to multiple stings. A small percentage (probably
less than 0.5%) of individuals stung by fire ants experience a
systemic anaphylactic reaction, which usually occurs within minutes
of a sting and vary in severity. People have died from anaphylaxis
after only a few fire ants sting.
Anyone
stung by fire ants and displaying the following distinct symptoms
of hives, weakness, nausea, allergy, diarrhea, kin infection,
fever and flu, wheezing, shortness of breath or confusion should
be given immediate medical attention.
Fire
ants also interfere with hay harvesting operations because their
sting is fairly agonizing. Further, fire ants disrupt maintenance
of pastures and some crops by causing damage to very young
plants, ripe fruits and berries. They occasionally attack
newly hatched poultry and the young of ground-nesting wild birds.
Helpless newborn animals, domestic and wild, have been
killed by swarms of the worker ants. The farmers too are loomed
with fire ant mounds on their grounds. These elevated earthen
mounds range from three to thirty-six inches high, can erect damage
to machinery, hinder mowing operations and reduce land values
in heavily-infested areas. From the normal consumers' point of
view, fire ants are known to cause damage to homes, buildings,
air-conditioning units, and other electrical equipment.
There
are some native fire ants in the United States, but the imported
ones are the worst pests. As mentioned earlier, the two
most common forms of imported fire ants are the red and black
ones. The red imported fire ant is more widespread
and has had an enormous impact in the United States.
The
successful and rapid spread of the fire ant in the United
States is due in part to their adaptability and high reproductive
potential. To get an idea of their massive colonization, imported
red fire ants has already invaded over 275 million acres.
All counties in Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana are infested whilst
the Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas plus Puerto Rico counties
have been invaded by fire ants. Isolated colonies have been found
as far west as California, and as far north as Kansas City, Missouri.
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A
fire ant colony consists of three castes (forms) -- queens,
males and workers.
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The
ant colony is usually started by a single queen, but
some early-staged colonies are known to contain up to
five queens.
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The
Queen is an egg-laying female ant which the winged males will
mate with.
- The
worker fire ants are wingless, sterile females and differ in size.
- Older
worker ants collect food for the colony using foraging tunnels
which extend twenty-five meters from the mound and six to twelve
meters underground.
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Once
food is located, the forager ant returns to the tunnel, laying
a pheromone trail for other worker ants to follow.
Insects,
spiders, myriopods, earthworms, and other small invertebrates
make up the usual diet of the fire ants. They also attack young,
unprotected animals, such as newborn calves and pigs and newly-hatched
quail, poultry or ground-nesting birds and young rabbits. Fire
ants are attracted to sugar and honeydew and are known to feed
on carrion. These workers also defend the ant nest. Younger workers
however, care for the developing brood like eggs, larvae and pupae.
The
problem of effectively eradicating fire ants has baffled scientists
and the government for decades. Currently, there is no single,
universal solution to the fire ant problem. However, Our
Unique "Colony" Ant Control Solution is designed
to eliminate the entire ant nests once and for all completely.
All
one needs to do is to place a small quantity of Fast Ant Bait
(each sachet can be used for 4 or 5 applications depending on
dosage) around the ants-infested area and ants' path. The ants
would automatically be attracted, hallucinated and induced to
kill each other without any additional effort from the user. During
the next 24 hours, customers will start to notice bits
and pieces of dead ants' carcasses around the ant bait and within
next 3 days, the entire ant colony would be destroyed
and all the ants in the infested areas would be killed! 100% Guaranteed.
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