Fire ants reside in colonies, which often can contain more than 100,000 ants. The average lifespan of a worker fire ant is five months, whereas queens can live up to seven years. In a day, queens can lay thousands of eggs, with fire ants going from larva to adulthood in approximately 30 days. When a colony has a well-fed queen and the colony grows rapidly, queens may leave the colony with worker ants to establish new colonies nearby.
Treatment
Can I treat fire ants myself?
As noted, fire ants are extremely territorial; they will attack if threatened. Trying to treat a fire ant mound with granular pesticides with a do-it-yourself method not only may be ineffective, but this also puts you in danger of being attacked. If you spot a fire ant mound on your property, the best course of action is to contact a pest control professional who is trained to safely identify, treat and eliminate fire ant colonies.