The purpose that fire ants serve is to prey upon other arthropod pests and eat other insects such as fleas, flea larvae, chinch bugs, cockroach eggs, cockroaches, ticks and other pests.
Other animals also feed on fire ants.
Animals and insects that eat fire ants are anteaters, horned lizards, birds, spiders, antlions and Armadillos.
If fire ants went extinct the food chain would collapse and it would actually also affect every organism.
Many other insects, birds and other animals that rely on ants and fire ants as food would also suffer and likely die and go extinct.
Anteaters would also suffer as anteaters feed only on ants and fire ants.
The time of day that fire ants are most active is early morning and early evening when they are foraging for food at or near the surface.
Then they head back to feed their queens.
Fire ants do hate cinnamon as well as tea tree oil, peppermint oil and even vinegar and bleach.
Fire ants stings do not hurt more than a bee although fire ants sting quite a bit.
A fire ant sting is less severe than a bee sting.
Fire ants can be killed immediately in the house or yard by spraying the fire ants with some diluted bleach or some diluted vinegar.
Other ants can also be killed with vinegar or bleach.
Fire ants as well as other ants do not like vinegar and react badly to vinegar.
Fire ants and other ants can be killed when they are sprayed with vinegar and water mixture.
Once you spray the fire ants and other ants with vinegar they will die.
You can also kill fire ants and regular ants with some diluted bleach as the bleach will also kill the ants and fire ants near instantly.
The smell that fire ants hate is lavender, thyme, cayenne, peppermint, peppermint oil, black pepper and citrus fruit smells.
Predators that eats fire ants are antlions, spiders, birds, horned lizards, Armadillos, anteaters and phorid flies.
A fire ants worst enemy is the phorid fly which is a predator that is native to South America and has been introduced into the red imported fire ant colonies.
The phorid fly lays it's eggs inside the head of the red imported fire ant and after it hatches the larvae kills their host and consumes it's body while developing.
The biggest enemy of ants are anteaters and spiders.
Other enemies of ants are lizards, praying mantis, ant decapitating flies, Oogpister Beetles, Larvae of Antlions and Paussinae Beetles.
Ants leave a trail of pheromone to guide other ants to food sources.
Sometimes the ants will leave the pheromone trail in search of other food sources but most often ants will follow the pheromone trail of the ant that first left it.
You can kill ant scent trails by use of vinegar, apple cider vinegar, baking soda, dish soap, bleach or even Windex.
Apple cider vinegar does kill ant trails and gets rid of the ant pheromone scent.
You can make a spray of 1 part water and 1 part apple cider vinegar and apply the mixture wherever a line of ants starts to form.
You should repeat the application of the apple cider vinegar spray until the ants are gone.
Baking soda can remove ant trails and ant scent trails.
You can combine some baking soda with some water and make a scrubbing paste to apply to the ant trails which will clean the area and get rid of the ant pheromone scent.
Things that kill ant pheromone trails and ant scent trails are Windex, vinegar, baking soda, dish soap and ammonia based cleaners.
Diluted bleach can also kill ant pheromone trails and ant scent trails.
Windex does get rid of ant trails as well as kills the ants.
You can spray Windex on the ant trails to get rid of the ant trails and also spray the ants with Windex to kill them.
Windex is not only a glass cleaner but it's also known as an insect killer and will kill ants and most other insects.
To find the scent trail of ants watch for ants traveling in a line.
Ants will very rarely break off from the line to look for new food sources.
During an ant invasion the unbroken line of ants to the food will mark the pathway and location of the ant scent trail.
Ant scent trails are very short lived and only last between 10 minutes to 20 minutes before the ant scent trail evaporates.
The ant scent trail pheromone is made of molecules that evaporate very quickly.
A home remedy for ant scent trails is to mix 3 parts vinegar with one part water and spray the solution under doorways, in your yard or anywhere else you notice ants.
The vinegar and water solution will cover up ant scent trails and mess with the ants tracking abilities.
You should clean up dead ants and dispose of them in the trash to keep them out of your house and to keep from attracting more ants.
Vinegar will keep ants away for as long as the scent of vinegar stays around which can be from a few hours to 10 hours.
When the vinegar dries up you'll have to reapply the vinegar to keep the ants away again.
The smell of Pine Sol does keep ants away as ants hate the strong scent of Pine Sol so it will work as an ant repellent.
The Pine Sol can also kill ants as well.
You can deter and keep ants away by spraying areas where ants are hanging around and wiping surfaces such as floors, baseboards and countertops with diluted Pine Sol.
The smell that ants hate the worst is Lemongrass Essential Oil and Crysanthemum.
Other smells that ants hate are oil of lemon of lemon eucalyptus, lemon eucalyptus oil, cinnamon, tea tree oil, coffee grounds and cayenne pepper.
The fastest way to get rid of ants is to pour boiling water over the ants which will immediately kill the ants.
You can also use dish soap to get rid of ants or ant spray.
A home remedy for ants in the yard is a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water that you pour down the anthills or over the ants.
Then you can spray your lawn with the vinegar and water mixture as well to kill the ants.
You can also spray ants with a mixture of dish soap and water or castile soap and water.
The soap will kill the ants.
Another way to make a homemade ant killer is to mix some dish soap with some water in a spray bottle or sprayer and spray the ants.
The dish soap and water will kill the ants.
Professional Exterminators use Ant Dust to kill ants outside.
Exterminators typically kill ants by applying ant dust directly into the ant mounds which causes frolic in the ant colony and pushes the ants to come into contact with the ant powder.
When the ants come into contact with the ant powder it kills the ants instantly.
The best product to kill ants in your lawn is TERRO T901-6 Ant Killer Plus Multi Purpose Insecticide.
Another great ant killer is TRIAZICIDE Insect Killer for lawns.
The cause of ants in the lawn is usually dry, well drained soil that has low water holding capacity.
Turfgrass can also attract ants in lawns and they also naturally just love to build mounds in lawns where they can do so.
Many ants are attracted to sources of standing water and easily accessible food sources, like trash cans and other forms of debris.
If your yard is messy, it may be a prime target for an ant colony to grow.
As ant colonies grow, they usually need to start foraging for more food sources.
Ants are not only attracted to food and water. An abundance of ant mounds in your yard implies the ants have found an ideal area to establish their colonies.
Probably, your lawn has many undisturbed spots or offers suitable soil conditions for nesting.
Ant tunnels can cause soil to dry out.
Because the foraging ants like to eat whatever they come across, this does mean they could potentially be feeding on freshly laid grass seeds if you are planting a new lawn.
If an ant colony becomes too large it can suffocate grass.
In the process of building tunnels, the ants can break off roots and root hairs or increase the desiccation of the soil.