You might end up in a doubtful position and wondering whether fire ants bite through clothes, because there are tiny holes in your clothes and suspect fire ants are responsible. Can actually, fire ants bite through clothes?
Fire ants can bite through fabric clothes like cotton, linen, and wool by using their mandibles to scrap out and grab the fabric. Fire ants can bite through clothes quicker, cause of their aggression and working unity.
Fire ants are not always attracted to bite through clothes. You can protect your clothes from fire ants by sticking to the facts and techniques I teach you later in this article!
Can Fire ants sting and bite through cotton?
An experiment has been done by Pub Med to figure out the ability of fire ants to bite through cotton clothes.
First, one of the brave members of their crew wears a cotton sock on his hand and tightens it up so ants can not encounter his skin.
Then he holds his finger on a fire ant mound.
Luckily, he could save him without being stung by fire ants because of the protection of cotton socks.
But this won’t let you consent that fire ants can not bite through cotton. Here’s evidence of a statement I found from an ant keeper from Facebook.
Here’s another answer I got from an Ant keeper for this matter.
“ They can bite through if the cloth is stretched ”
Considering all of the above information, can fire ants bite through cotton?
Fire ants can bite through cotton, nevertheless, it may consume a substantial time. Therefore, cotton can be used as an ant-protecting material for humans.
Can fire ants bite through all the clothes?
Fire ants can only bite through soft clothing materials like cotton, linen, and wool. Fire ants can not bite through denim, silk, and velvet clothes as their mandibles aren’t strong enough.
Why do fire ants bite through clothes?
Fire ants do not always bite the cloth that they encounter. There can be a particular reason why a fire ant bites through your clothes.
Let’s find them out.
- Attractive towards sweat
I have seen fire ants, commonly most of the ant types have an attraction towards clothes with sweat in them. It is basically because of the biochemical substances that are included in human sweat, which work the same as pheromones.
Also, there is a fact that many ant species including fire ants bite clothes when the sweated person has diabetes. Diabetes will increase blood sugar, so the sugar concentration of sweat also be increased.
Fire ants bite through the cloth when they are attracted to it because they are trying to find food or trying to make a living in the area.
- To feel the moisture
Ants are likely to live in places where they have enough moisture. So, if you leave your clothes on the floor for more than 24 hours, ants might get into the cloth and bite through them whenever the water has drained.
If a considerable amount of fire ants find your cloth in a fine and safe place for the kingdom, they might signal their colony. That is the reason why sometimes left clothes in the garden turn out as ant colonies in the summer.
- Attracted to food smell
I have frequently seen fire ants bite through clothes when sugary foods and gravy have spilled on T-shirts. Ants will follow the smell trail to the cloth. Once the ant finds any sort of food spills in the cloth they try to consume it. As a result, they may end up ripping through the fabric.
- Perfume and fragrances
Including fire ants, several ant varieties can be attracted to sweet smells of perfumes, scented candles, etc. Therefore, if you spray perfumes, or use deodorants with your clothes there is a possibility of fire ants biting through your clothes.
In addition, ants are especially attracted to fragrance that includes carbon dioxide.
How do fire ants bite through clothes?
Everyone might wonder, how a fire ant can bite and rip through materials like clothes, wood, and sometimes materials like concrete.
Ants have teeth that are coated with Zink. Hence, it is well-sharpened to do strapping and grabbing many materials they encounter.
When the fire ant bites down clothes or any sort of materials, they use their mandibles to scrub and grab continuously.
When they hold the element and start biting it, to transfer the most strength to its mandible, the muscles of their head will be tightened, and it allows the two mandibles to shut closer.
Additionally, to make the process of biting clothes easier, fire ants have a body part like pincers on their head. It will allow them to separate the fabric wools they are tearing up and continually make holes in the cloth.
Usually, it takes a lot of time for a tiny fire ant to bite through a cloth. Because it has tiny mandibles and teeth.
But the thing is, when some ants get into a cloth they will try to rip it through with the help of each other. So it will make the process a little bit quicker and easier.
Ants do not eat the wools of a fabric when they make a hole in it. In fact, they chew it off and throw it away because they know it can cause digestion issues.
What can ants chew through?
Now you know that fire ants can chew through clothes.
But it is just not the case. There are some other materials that fire ants can chew through. Those will realize the capability of these aggressive fire ants.
1. Wood
Ants are capable of gnawing through wood and live trees. They can easily rip through and make nests in rotted wood basically because of the moisture it retain.
Commonly you can see fire ant nests inside the rotten woods in your garden.
Moreover, ants such as carpenter ants can bite through healthy and more robust wood on trees.
And the best part is fire ants or any sort of ants do not eat wood chips. They use them only as their protective nest.
2. Concrete
Fire ants, black ants, and citrus ants are highly capable of chewing concrete surfaces and making tunnels to establish nests.
The best example would be your bathroom.
Usually, the moisture will be retained in the concrete walls closer to your bathroom. If you have not tiled the wall, you may have probably seen fire ants and black ants establish nests on the concrete wall.
3. Wires
I have previously explained in an article that ants have an attraction towards electricity.
So once they have gotten into your switch box, they might end up gnawing through the protective covering of the electric wiring.
Crazy ants are mostly known for this matter of electric attractive ants. But still, there are cases in which fire ants have caused the devastation of households by destroying the house wiring systems.
4. Clothes
As you are well aware of, fire ants can bite through clothes.
Especially, cotton has a chemical substance that can attract ants off their smell trails.
When a bunch of fire ants get into a cloth they will make holes everywhere on that cloth. On top of that, you will end up with a dress that is not very pretty to wear.
5. Rubber
I have seen ants chewing rubber quite frequently.
Once they bite the rubber, they aren’t likely to eat them. Instead ants just throw away the particles that they bit.
The reason behind biting the rubber is practicing the mandibles to be sharpened.
What can fire ants not chew threw?
There are elements that are too hard for fire ants to chew.
The reason fire ants can’t bite some things is, that either their mandible is too weak to gnaw them or the mandible is too small so it generates less strength.
Fire ants do not have the capability of biting through stones as same as any other ant species that have ever been found.
Similarly to every other ant kingdom, fire ants can not eat through steel. So you won’t ever find fire ants hurting your items in the garage.