How to get rid of fire ants?

Fire ants are one of the most invasive and dangerous insect pests you could have the displeasure of dealing with. Their bites are painful, can cause allergic reactions in specific individuals, and are potentially lethal to animals and pets.

Fire ants are also highly aggressive and have no boundaries. They will invade your lawn, garden and might even move into your home and eat at your electrical wiring.

The best way to approach a fire ant infestation is to respond with overwhelming force and be meticulous in your pest control efforts.

In this post, we’ll be discussing how to get rid of fire ants with natural home remedies and chemical solutions. We will also be covering how you can avoid future investigations.

Let’s get started.

Understanding The Threats of Fire Ants

How to get rid of fire ants

While the heading might seem a tad bit dramatic, it seems appropriate considering the pest’s habit.

The fire ant or red imported fire ant is an invasive species of ants from South America. Records show that they came to the United States as a stowaway in the 1930s and spread through the southern US.

Fire ants are identifiable by their reddish-brown to black bodies. They are highly protective of their mounds and will repeatedly sting any intruder that disrupts them.

The queen ruled a red imported fire ant colony or mound, which births over 600 worker ants daily. Left unchecked for weeks, they can grow their colonies with hundreds of thousands of ants strong, and if they’re gone long enough, their population can reach up to 40 million ants per acre.

Fire ant colonies typically grow fast to match their prodigious birth rate, often reaching as deep as 25 feet down. Given enough time, their mounds might grow wide enough to intrude upon your farmland, garden, lawn, compost piles, sheds, and even your home.

How to Get Rid of Fire Ants?

There are more than one ways to deal with a severe fire ant infestation. You can use chemicals and insecticides or natural solutions.

Each control method has its advantages, though it’s important to mention that insecticides generally provide quicker and more reliable results than natural remedies.

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Two-step Treatment Approach

The two-step approach is the best method for fire ant pest control regardless of whether the colony mound is indoors or outdoors.

  1. Step one: Spot treat the ground and surrounding areas around fire ant mounds or nests. If you have difficulty finding them, follow the trail back to the mound or location they’re hiding. You can use baits, sprays, home remedies, insecticides, etc.
  2. Step two: After you’ve more or less driven them back to their mounds, attack the nests a few hours later. Shovel them up and pour steaming water, insecticide, or other natural remedies inside.

Be sure to wear clothes that can protect you from their bite or sting, as the fire ants will retaliate the moment their mound is disturbed.

Natural Remedies to Get Gid of Fire Ants?

If you have children or animals around your home or your garden, you might not be keen on using chemicals and insecticides that could put them at risk. Try out these great home remedies or solutions to deal with fire-ant-infested areas.

Home remedies excel the most when you’re dealing with colonies outdoors. Here are some:

1. Cayenne pepper

Whether powdered and mixed in hot water, Cayenne pepper is an effective natural insecticide to remove dangerous ants and other invaders around your home.

To eliminate the fire ant mounds on your property, first, you want to soak diced cayenne pepper in boiling water and then buy some powdered pepper.

Isolate the ants from the rest of your property by sprinkling powdered pepper around the nest and pour the water and pepper mixture down the nest. You can also set aside some water in a spray bottle and kill ants as you find them around your property.

2. Lemon water

Mix equal lemon juice and water parts inside a spray bottle and spray the mixture on areas where the ants frequent the most. It is effective long-term and cannot help you remove a fire ant mound from your property.

3. Dish soap

Standard dish soap contains chemicals that are lethal to fire ants. They break down their exoskeleton and cause them to shrivel up. Mix up some dish soap with water in a bottle and drench areas ants are actively patrolling.

4. Vinegar solution

Mix water, vinegar, and baking soda in equal parts and drench individual mounds and areas with high traffic.

5. Diatomaceous earth

Diatomaceous Earth is not earth at all. It contains the remains of fossilized phytoplankton and has a powdery, granular texture. When you apply them around the mound of the imported fire ants, you’ll cause the ants in the colony to dehydrate and die.

6. Boric acid

Boric acid is a great natural occurring acid that doubles a potent poison for imported fire ants and other household pests. When they ingest it, it poisons their stomachs and kills them eventually.

Boric acid, on its own, is not particularly enticing to ants with expansionists tendencies. It might poison them when they cross it, but they’re unlikely to ingest the blue powder. You will have to make fire ant bait to get them to get rid of them.

Boric acid sugar is a great fire ant bait. To prepare it, all you need is to mix boric acid with corn syrup or sugar and pour it over cardboard pieces.

What makes boric acid fire ant baits even more vicious is that it has the potential to eliminate a queen or multiple queens if you have more than a single colony on your property.

It is slow-acting, and since Queens only eat what their ants have already chewed, boric fire ant bait could poison them and help you wipe out the mound with minimal effort.

7. Hot water

Pouring a pot of water into a new dug-out ant nest is one of the easiest ways to remove ants from your garden. Most ants don’t survive the first pour, and subsequent pours are all but guaranteed to eliminate them or encourage them to move.

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Chemical Treatment and Insecticide

Chemical control solutions for exterminating fire ants are primarily available as bait products and Fire ant killer insecticides.

1. Fire ant baits

There are dozens of different types of baits available on the market. They typically contain corn syrup or soybean oil and are very slow acting. They are also poisonous to animals and humans in large quantities, so you don’t want to broadcast them around areas where you grow your food.

Broadcast baits are most effective when you spread them on the ground around the mound in the early morning hours or evenings when the worker ants are away foraging. Use rotary broadcasters, granule spreaders, or any other type of handheld spreader. The best ratio is about 5 pounds per 10,000 square feet.

Broadcast baits might take more than a few tries before they are successful. In most cases, the queen goes infertile before she later dies off, dismantling the mound.

2.Fire ant killer insecticides

These types of insecticides are used alongside fire ant baits. After poisoning the mound, you finish things off by applying the insecticide.

Treatment for Fire Ants in Your Home?

Sometimes fire ants can establish entire colonies near your property or home. When they’re this up close, the strategy for pest control might change a bit.

Fire ants typically prefer to create mounds outdoors, but they might choose forage food and water near established shelters during dry seasons.

Wall voids, crevices, or behind large appliances are a few of the most likely places you’ll find a fire ant colony if they’ve infested your home. If you still have trouble finding the colony or nest, follow foraging ants returning to the mound.

Your primary weapons for dealing with an indoor infestation should be contact insecticides and home remedies. You can use baits treatments too, though we don’t recommend it if you have children or pets.

Final Words

Fire ants are not impossible to deal with if you have the right tools and information. However, there are rare situations where you’re better off calling a professional insect growth regulator.

If fire ants manage to get into your electrical wiring, avoid mounting any serious pest control efforts. You could end up with a painful shock or do severe damage to your electrical wiring if you make a mistake.


What kills fire ants instantly?

Contact insecticides, boiling water, and cayenne pepper are all fast-acting solutions that can help you exterminate fire ants.

How do I keep fire ants anyway?

There are numerous preventive steps you can take to avoid a future infestation.

Caulk cracks around your home and other access point that ants and other pests might use to invade your home. As for your outdoor property, apply the appropriate amount of granular and spray insecticide to every acre of your property. You should also pay attention to activity around your soil. Look for freshly disturbed patches.

How do I get rid of fire ants in my house?

Spray the invading fire ants’ nests with insecticides and handle them with home recipe methods.

Will Dawn dish soap kill fire ants?

Yes, it will. Dawn Dish soap and any other type of dish soap can help you eliminate fire ants. Unfortunately, it won’t be enough to destroy the fire ant mound and remove the queen.

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