Anyone living in Texas can tell you what an awful scourge fire ants can be. At Green Team Pest of Houston, TX, we know our ants – and plenty of other pests, too – and wanted to share some key facts with you.
Impacts of Fire Ants
There are many types of insects that are nuisance pests and nothing more. But with fire ants, there are many reasons to call in the exterminators.
- Stings. Fire ants latch onto their victims with their barbed mandibles and then repeatedly sting and inject their toxic venom. Each individual sting feels like a burning hot spike on the skin and can cause intense burning and itching, followed by swelling, redness, and blistering.
- Swarms. Not only do red ants sting repeatedly, they usually do so as a group. It is common for a colony to swarm as one to attack.
- Allergies. Some people have severe reactions to red ant stings and can have life-threatening anaphylactic reactions. (Note: if you have been stung and are concerned about your reaction, please contact a health professional. By no means is this blog intended to provide medical information.)
- Animals. Pets, livestock, and wildlife also fall victim to fire ants.
- Landscaping. In addition to stings, red ant mounds can damage landscaping and equipment. It is said that there are an average of 300 mounds per acre in Texas.
- Electrical wiring. For some reason, fire ants are attracted to electrical equipment and wiring. They often make a mess of wiring, insulation, and utility boxes. This can cause problems with equipment, short circuits, and many other failures that become very costly.
Getting Rid of Fire Ants
A quick Google search might give you a few home remedies to try and get rid of fire ants around your home or property. Suggestions like “get some chickens,” “pour water on the nest,” “set fire to them” or “vacuum them up” all made us laugh, and we certainly don’t recommend any of them. Do not misuse or overuse store-bought pesticides to attempt to eradicate fire ants. There are few effective ways of clearing out fire ants since they can be very persistent. When you hire the experienced pest control professionals from Green Team Pest, you can rest assured that our unique process will not only control the fire ants, but it will do so in a safe and responsible manner.
If you have fire ants, silverfish, spiders, termites, cockroaches, or rodents, trust Houston’s premier pest control service to take care of the problem. Contact Green Team Pest at (281) 295-1633 to learn more about us, or schedule an on-site consultation. We’ll help take the sting out of fire ant control.