Due to the name that fire ants are given or how hard they look, you might wonder whether fire ants survive fire. If they can, all the effort you put into burning fire ants will not be worth it.
So, can fire ants survive fire?
Fire ants literally can not survive fire when they burning on it. Nevertheless, 98% of the fire ant colony will survive fire, since only ants that live in the surface level are affected by fire.
You might be experiencing a fire and infestation inside your house. Now, can you burn the fire ants or is there any other ways to kill fire ants? I will teach you all of these today. Stick with me!
Can any kind of ants survive fire?
In most cases, an ant can’t survive from fire, since it will be killed or severely damaged when it burns on fire. But ants in the ground holes of an ant colony can survive a fire.
However, if you burn an ant colony, if the ant queen and majority of the workers still out there, the colony won’t likely to be relocated.
According to research based on a wildfire in Southern California, a fire can disturb and totally mess up the communication structure of an ant colony.
This is what it means.
Usually, in a fire ant or any other ant empire, soldiers are guarding the colony from the surface area and restrict the entry for outer influences.
But when you kill them, initially, the colony has no idea, and the other ants who trained to be workers have to replace their jobs.
On the other hand, ants will lose the smell trail that they used to find food, will be loose. So, they might find themselves in trouble with food sources for some time.
Can fire ants breathe fire?
Fire ants can not breathe fire. Fire ants breathe through the spiracles in their exoskeleton, which in hells the Oxygen and emits Carbon dioxide. Since Oxygen is burned in a fire, there is no possible way that fire ants can breathe fire.
Why are fire ants are called fire ants?
Fire ants are called fire ants mainly because of their aggressiveness compared to other ant species. Fire ants have a sting which they use so often against any disturbance. Nevertheless, fire ants are non-related with fire.
However, Brazilian imported fire ants have grown in every single state of America, indicating it is a highly invasive pest in the country.
Because of that reason, some people think they are called fire ants because they scale up their colony rapidly, like fire.
Killing or repelling fire ants
Despite the ability or inability of fire ants to survive in fire. Let’s jump in to see how to kill or repel fire ants from your house or your yard.
When to kill fire ants from fire?
As same as other ants, fire ants are overwintering them in colder seasons and come out in the spring and summer, when it gets warmer.
The best time to kill the fire ants is spring or summer, or whenever they will turn out as an invasive pest and start an infestation in your house.
Especially, in the early spring, you can find fire ants everywhere in your yard. There is mounding sand out off the grass.
You can kill these fire ants in your garden without any hesitation.
But when fire ants are infested inside your house, I don’t recommend using fire to kill fire ants in your house. Because there are enough examples of people burning their houses by trying to get rid of a pest inside the house.
You have to use other pest-killing chemicals, and remedies to repel ants when it’s coming to handle indoor fire ants.
Does gasoline kill fire ants?
The smell of gasoline is always there in pesticide sprays that we use in general. So, can ants survive both fire and gasoline?
Gasoline can kill a fire ant by burning its exoskeleton and making it hard to breathe in. But it can’t do a big impact on killing a large colony. Instead, the smell can make the ants repel and relocate the colony.
But I don’t recommend using this inside your house. It may cause you more trouble.
You can try this in fire ant mounds in the yard. Be watchful, and don’t let the gasoline be sprinkled on the plants.
How to kill fire ants without fire?
Although an individual fire ant can not survive the fire, the ability to survive fire as a fire ant colony and safety hazards will let you to use some other methods to kill or repel fire ants.
Here are few successful methods that you can use to kill fire ants instead of killing them with fire.
- Use boiling water
I have seen this specific method on the Ants Canada Youtube channel, and it seems to be working perfectly for me. Fire ants can’t survive boiling water as well as fire. The special benefit here is, you can pour the boiling water easily into the ground holes, so this bait can reach to the ants below the ground level.
- Use a commercial pesticide
This is the easiest way to get rid of the fire ants in your house. You can buy ant baits made with ant-attractive chemicals by spending a few bucks on Amazon. It’s safe and not cause burning problems in your house and is easy to use. Here is an ant bait that has many positive reviews on Amazon, and it has highly rated on the Facebook group I have joined. But you have to keep your kids and pets away from these chemical ant baits. - Try some natural remedies
There are some promising natural ant-repelling remedies for commonly seen ants in houses. They will also work on fire ants. But they might not be strong enough to kill the fire ants, instead, they can repel them from your house.- Vinegar and salt
- Citronella spray
- Peppermint oil spray
- Lemon extract
Here are some natural remedies to try and get rid of fire ants in your house. Even if fire ants survive fire or not, these natural remedies are the safest methods to be followed.