05-18-2013, 10:07 AM
If you or any of your neighbors ever bring mulch, soil, plants, or anything else near your property, you will get LFA. And probably coqui frogs. I've even heard of LFA getting transported via vehicles that weren't hauling any of the above. So rest assured, if you don't have them, you eventually will.
All that being said, they really aren't that bad. They aren't aggressive and won't "swarm" you if you disturb them, much unlike their much larger counterparts. They are impossible to eradicate but fairly easy to control. LFA live in the ground and also in trees. When they get into your house, spread some Amdro around the outside of your home and they will disappear. Maybe for the season, maybe not quite that long.
The worst thing is that most of the stores here only sell fire ant "solutions" that don't work. Because they don't "mound" like typical fire ants, you have to buy bait. Because the bait doesn't work if it gets wet, you need to apply it carefully.
I once read that LFA are the only ant species that regularly reproduces by using both cloning and sexual reproductive cycles, giving them distinct advantages. They can also have tens of thousands of queens per colony, each an egg laying factory. Any attempt to eradicate them is unlikely to kill every last queen. So long as one survives, a prodigy of trillions is nearly inevitable.
All that being said, they really aren't that bad. They aren't aggressive and won't "swarm" you if you disturb them, much unlike their much larger counterparts. They are impossible to eradicate but fairly easy to control. LFA live in the ground and also in trees. When they get into your house, spread some Amdro around the outside of your home and they will disappear. Maybe for the season, maybe not quite that long.
The worst thing is that most of the stores here only sell fire ant "solutions" that don't work. Because they don't "mound" like typical fire ants, you have to buy bait. Because the bait doesn't work if it gets wet, you need to apply it carefully.
I once read that LFA are the only ant species that regularly reproduces by using both cloning and sexual reproductive cycles, giving them distinct advantages. They can also have tens of thousands of queens per colony, each an egg laying factory. Any attempt to eradicate them is unlikely to kill every last queen. So long as one survives, a prodigy of trillions is nearly inevitable.