Are these Fire Ants?

wishiwere · Post by **wishiwere** » Jul 16, 2007 12:40 pm

I've never EVER seen an ant so scary. It's bright red/orange more red really, with a black gaster. There were hundred or so of them on a place were a mound of dirt had been piled (not by them, but there were ant holes in it as normal in a hill of dirt. Small hill maybe 2 foot X 1 foot X 10 inches high against the garage.)

Does anyone have any idea what else they could be? There were some smaller black ants crawling around, but didn't appear to be connected to them.

Please tell they are normal ants and not something horrible like fire ants in Michigan?

kHT · Post by **kHT** » Jul 16, 2007 11:51 pm

wishiwere, when we lived in TX, the fire ants were all red. That is another type that as DH saids to stay clear of!! At least you don't have huge carpenter ants that will distroy you house faster than termites.

wishiwere · Post by **wishiwere** » Jul 17, 2007 5:58 am

So? How do you get rid of them? Do you know?

kHT · Post by **kHT** » Jul 17, 2007 12:30 pm

wishiwere, we were talking about how our neighbor killed them this morning and have to laugh when I read that you wanted to know how to kill them. Would you believe he put a white powdery stuff on the outside of the mound and poured gas inside and started it on fire. An old indian trick in riding the area of these. But honestly I wouldn't do that I'd call the local pest company and get their input on them.
Ants hate vinegar but so do plants. We used to just stay away from the mounds there in TX after one of our sons got a few bites from them.

wishiwere · Post by **wishiwere** » Jul 17, 2007 2:40 pm

Our county extension office said, " Dr Russel at the MSU lab said that it couldn't be fire ants because they aren't this far north. It said it appears to be your regular field ant.

If you are still concerned and feel like a challenge, feel free to catch a couple and we can send them down for further investigation."

Can't say this made me more comfortable about it, as everything I've read on the net says fire ants. Fields ants are black from what I have seen on the net.

Spider · Post by **Spider** » Jul 25, 2007 4:31 pm

Quickly desturb the pile. If a large swarm of them come out in a matter of seconds they they could be fire ants. We would get a shovel full of one ant pile and add it to another ant pile and watch the fight.

They make their own piles large enough to choke a lawnmower if left alone. But then I don't believe they "should" be that far north.

wishiwere · Post by **wishiwere** » Jul 25, 2007 6:40 pm

Well, that's what they tell me here at the county extension. Then said they appeared to be 'field ants'! Hm...everything I see about them is a solid black ant. The only ant I ever find on the net with this look is the fireant. Next time I see some, I'll try to disturb it quickly with a shovel and run!

I suppose if they are fireants, they'll die with a good winter here?

petal*pusher · Post by **petal*pusher** » Jul 25, 2007 10:07 pm

Hmmm....if you google "fire ants" and look at the images...there are quite a few pics that look just like your little fella!

Michigan still won't admit we have cougars/panthers yet either...but we do!

When I was a youngin'...I remember our cat brought up a chipmunk that looked different. Dad looked him up and found it was a 13-striped ground squirrel...not supposed to be HERE! Earwigs...japanese beetles...orange ladybugs...hummingbird moths...several other things we seldom found back then!

It looks like a fire ant to me!........p