BUGS-4-LESS
(757)320-5211 or (800)621-4168
SERVING VIRGINIA BEACH
and
THE ENTIRE TIDEWATER AREA
RIFA
Red Imported Fire Ant
Fire Ants have long been a problem across the deep south from Florida to and throughout Texas, slowing migrating northward and adapting to the cooler climate as they moved. "On August 4, 2009, the Virginia Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services voted to make permanent an Imported Fire Ant (IFA) quarantine in the Tidewater area. Todd P. Haymore, Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), announced a temporary quarantine on June 24 for 11 Virginia localities: the counties of James City and York and the cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg. The same localities are included in the permanent quarantine." (Taken from the VaDACS press release 8/4/2009, for the full story click HERE.) Now they are here in Virginia and it is doubtful, despite all efforts to prevent their spread that they will remain confined to the eleven counties sited in the VaDACS press releases.
Fire Ant venom is the same as that of a Wasp. The sting of a Fire Ant is immediately painful and usually causes a painful pustule that often remains for several days. If the Fire Ant mound is disturbed they will attack in mass and by use of pheromones (scents) signal to all sting at the same time, stepping on a Fire Ant mound could mean hundreds of stings, especially if one is barefooted. Being stung by such a large number of Fire Ants may cause a person to go into shock. If that person has an allergy to bee and Wasp stings anaphylactic shock is a distinct probability, in either case the result could be death, young children and the elderly are especially at risk.
The structure of the Fire Ant Mound takes on features below ground that far more complex than they appear from above. This image does not show the details of the nesting chamber, but instead show how the colonial structure is much broader than the above ground mound itself. Ants communicate by scents called pheromones, if the top of the mound is disturbed or treated with a repellent pesticide an "alarm" pheromone is released and worker Fire Ants begin evacuating Queens, eggs and Larvae via the foraging and water gathering tunnels pictured here. A few days later smaller mounds will begin to crop up in the surrounding area. Not only was the colony not killed, but now it has divided into
several nests that will soon become colonies of their own.Fire Ants are survivors, here we see a Fire Ant mound floating atop the water after heavy rains have caused flooding. The mound and it's inhabitants will float along wherever the water takes them and as the water subsides they will once again settle into the soil and make the new location their home.
This species of ant is going to spread from area to area and from region to region until they finally encounter a climate they cannot adapt to.
When a colony becomes mature winged males and females, called alates, will swarm mate and return to the ground to create new colonies. So whether they spread underground, float on flood water or fly Fire Ants are always on the move. Don't wait for them to move into your yard, click HERE and ask how BUGS-4-LESS! can help prevent them.