4 Attack of the Red Fire Ants

The red fire ant is so small that you can't see it well without a powerful electron microscope. However, these ants have been causing big problems in the Southeast and are now traveling to other states too.

In Alabama a newborn babywas killed while lying in a crib . In Florida a little girl lost her life as she played with her dog. In Louisiana an old man died after being attacked in a motel room. What did these victims have in common? They were all killed by red fire ants.

At first glance these ants don't look very dangerous. They are small—only about an eighth of an inch long. They have big heads and skinny legs. But the size and shape of the ants is not the problem. The little critters have a couple of secret weapons. First of all, each ant has two claws near its mouth. It can use these claws to grab onto your skin. Also, it has a stinger at the back end of its body. This stinger carries poison. As the ant clings to your skin, it can shoot the poison right into you.

The sting of a single red fire ant does not hurt that much. According to one researcher, “It [is] worse than a mosquito bite but nowhere near as bad as a wasp sting.” But the sting is only the beginning. As the poison enters your body, your skin will start to itch. The itching will build to a burning feeling. Finally, a yellow blister will break out at the spot where you were stung. This nasty blister can linger for days, even weeks. It will itch like crazy. But beware:scratching will only make it worse. The blister could become infected. You could end up scarred for the rest of your life.

One fire ant sting is bad enough. But you almost never get stung once. When a red fire ant attacks, it stings again and again. And these ants don't travel alone. So when one latches onto you, you can be pretty sure that dozens of others will join in. In just a few seconds, you can be covered with a whole swarm of stinging ants.

Marion Bernhardt found that out the hard way. She was lying in a Florida hospital in 1994. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, red fire ants began to crawl all over her. Said Bernhardt, “I was stung all up and down my legs, and I had welts all over them and on my side. They burned for days. I never had such an experience in all my life.” Many people can sympathize with Bernhardt. Each year, more than 60,000 victims seek medical help after being stung by red fire ants. Millions of others suffer quietly at home.

Marion Bernhardt didn't die from her stings. Most people don't. They can get stung hundreds of times and still walk away. But others react more strongly to the poison. For them, red fire ants can spell death. These people may have trouble breathing after they've been stung. They may pass out or go into shock. Before you know it, they're dead. Red fire ant stings have caused the deaths of more than 85 people in the United States since the 1930s.

Human beings are not the only targets of red fire ants. The ants will go after beetles , rats, birds, even small cows. Their goal is to kill and then eat their victims. One of their favorite meals is the flesh of young deer. Fire ants find these deer quite easy to kill. When a fawn is threatened, it stands perfectly still. That allows the fire ants to climb onto it. They sting it everywhere—on its legs, its stomach, its neck. As the ants sting the fawn near its eyes, it becomes blinded . Finally, it reacts by trying to lick the ants off its body. But that just makes matters worse. The ants keep ejecting their poison even as they are swallowed. They sting the inside of the deer's mouth. They sting its throat, windpipe, and stomach. Soon these body parts swell up so that the fawn can no longer breathe. Within minutes, it is dead.

Americans didn't always have to worry about red fire ants. Before 1930 there were none in the United States. They made their homes in the forests of Brazil. But one day the ants got onto a ship bound for Alabama. When the ship docked, the ants came pouring out onto the land.

At first, they stayed in the Southeast. They could be found only in Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. Lately, though, they've turned up in other places. They've slipped into moving vans and trucks. Some have made it all the way to California. They've also crept north to Tennessee and Virginia.

Red fire ants used to stay outdoors. But as Marion Bernhardt can tell you, they are now coming inside. They get into hospitals and motels. They crawl under the floor mats of cars. They cause accidents by stinging drivers. They chew through electrical wires in houses. Some people have even fled their homes to get away from the dreaded ants.

As if all this were not enough, there's another problem on the horizon. Something creepy is going on with America's red fire ants. In the past, these ants formed regular ant colonies . Each colony had a single queen. She was the only one who could lay eggs. The rest of the ants in the group would fight to protect her. They would kill any other queen who came near. Because of this, each colony built its mound far away from any other colony.

Now that is changing. No one knows why, but some colonies are beginning to accept more than one queen. As many as 500 queens have been found in a single mound. These colonies are huge. One queen can lay 100 eggs an hour. So how many eggs can 500 queens lay? The total is more than a million a day! As these eggs hatch , ants spill out of the mound and start colonies of their own.

Multiqueen colonies don't mind having neighbors. Again, no one knows why. But ants in these groups don't fight with nearby colonies. So new fire ant mounds are springing up right next to old ones. In some places, you can find up to 500 colonies in a single acre . Each colony inhabits a mound that is about a foot high. Each contains millions of ants. You can just imagine what your backyard would look like if several colonies of fire ants set up house there.

Where will it end? Will red fire ants keep spreading across America? Will their colonies keep getting bigger and closer together? It's hard to say. But one thing's for sure. If red fire ants come to your neighborhood, you'll know it!