Red ants or Fire Ants are unique because unlike other ants they bite with their mouths to hold on and then they sting injecting toxins into their prey (or an unsuspecting human). Although horticulturalists don’t categorize ants as a garden pest, most people consider the ant an unwelcome tenant in the flower garden.Ants are aggressive, especially the notorious fire ant of the South, which seems to expand its territory northward year by year.Some ants maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with aphids.

Ant Colonies. With in two weeks the grass around the ant hills was stone dead and still shows no signs of life. Ants will feed on almost any organic material, including other insects, animals and plants. Wow!

Which means they’re pretty good at adapting to survive. A compound called d-limonene in citrus peels is toxic to ants and is the key component to their elimination. These insects are black or dark brown and nest in soil, lawns, at the base of walls or under flat stones.
It's a myth that there are more ants running around when it rains. Ants are social insects; they live in colonies that consist mainly of workers – sterile, wingless females. Red Imported Fire Ants (RIFA) are the most common red ants in the United States. If you’ve decided ants don’t belong in your garden, there’s something you should know: Ants are among earth’s oldest living creatures.

If you can find the red ant nest, kill the queen ant along with the colony and the problem is solved.

Ants usually venture into your flower bed seeking warmth and moisture. These dark reddish-brown ants are an invasive species found throughout the southern part of the U.S. Keep reading to le arn more red ant facts, including information on red ant bites and more. Yield is 10% of what it should be.

I also spread some on the ant hills in my lawn. They especially don't want the stinging, red ants. How to Control Ants in Your Garden. Most people, if not all, don't want ants in their house or ravaging their garden. The truth is ants multiply very quickly during dry, hot weather. Legend has it, they traveled here in the ships' ballast tanks where soil was used for stabilization.

Now that you've found the nest, prepare 2 to 3 gallons of really hot water. A mixture of citrus oil, molasses and liquid dish detergent can be poured directly onto ant mounds to get rid of red ants in the garden.

Although most fire ant species do not bother people and are not invasive, Solenopsis invicta, known in the United States as the red imported fire ant (or RIFA), is an invasive pest in many areas of the world, including the United States, Australia, China and Taiwan. I call the typical little black, or red colored ant, the garden ant. The trail should lead you right to the nest.

Red Ants are also called Fire Ants and may be referred to as a Ginger Ant in some places.
They may have a more sophisticated name, but I don’t know it.

Red Ants in a Flower Bed. Ants live in colonies made up almost entirely of non-mating female workers whose job is to gather food, build the nest, and look after the egg-laying queen and her young. Red imported fire ants (RIFAs, for short) get their common name from their ability to inflict painful bites and stings. They are believed to have entered the country from South America via the port of Mobile, Alabama, in the 1930s. They actually existed alongside the dinosaurs. They may have a more sophisticated name, but I don’t know it. Two months ago I mixed equal amounts of borax and white processed surgar and spread it on my garden. The plants in the garden did not die but became very sickly. Which means they survived a mass extinction event.

Observe the traffic pattern of any red ants in the yard.

The total ant population is estimated at one quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000).