You can tell if it's fire ants by their size and color.
Fire ants are reddish, brown in color and often have darker and red-brown to black brown colored abdomens.
Sizes of fire ants range from 1/16 to 1/4 inch long and the fire ants have narrow, pinched waists with 2 prominent nodes right before their abdomen.
Fire ants are actually several species of ants in the genus Solenopsis, which includes over 200 species.
Solenopsis are stinging ants, and most of their common names reflect this, for example, ginger ants and tropical fire ants.
Once fire ants get hold of you, fire ants can sting you several times and these are not just an ordinary sting.
They can inject toxic alkaloid venom into your body, which is known as solenopsin.
It's a chemical that produces pain, itching, swelling, and redness of the skin.
Fire ants are found in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and sporadically in Maryland.
Fire ants have also been accidentally introduced to other countries.
In some cases, imported fire ants are considered to be beneficial because they prey upon other arthropod pests.
In urban areas, fire ants prey on flea larvae, chinch bugs, cockroach eggs, ticks and other pests.
In many infested areas, the problems outweigh the benefits and controlling fire ants is highly desirable.