Fire ants are a group of insects that belong to the genus Solenopsis. There are 200 species of fire ants. Fire ants are also called tropical fire ants, red ants, or ginger ants.
Fire Ants 🐜Facts for Kids
As is typical of ants, the fire ants body consists of abdomen, thorax, and head.
The worker fire ants measure 2 – 6 mm in total length.
They will build nests in soil. Fire ants make habitats in watered lawns, pond shores, and river banks. They cover their nests with rocks, bricks, logs, and timber. Fire ants prefer to live in open habitats such as lawns, parks, and fields.
Fire ant
s are widely distributed in the United States.
Fire ants live in colonies and they produce large mounds in open habitats.
The fire ant eats seeds and the leaves.
They are some of the most aggressive ant species. Fire ants will rarely tolerate other insects in their habitat.
Soldier ants are mainly responsible for cleaning out the nest as well as finding food for the entire colony.
Fire ants are rather resilient creatures. They can survive extreme cold without entering into hibernation whatsoever. Quite a few colonies however die out during winter.
They are known to build 40-cm-long mounds. Each colony may contain one or more queens.
During the hurricane Harvey in United States 2017 many fire ants colonies are observed swimming to the surface of the water. Each of the colonies consists of 100,000 fire ants. This shows how tough these ants are.
Fire ants queens can live as long as 7 years. The queen will lay as many as 1,600 eggs in its lifetime.
Male ants die soon after mating with queens.
