The recent flooding of Hurricane Frances and more recently heavy rains from
Ivan sent fire ants looking for higher ground.
Unfortunately, flood waters will not drown significant numbers of fire ants.
Instead the fire ant colonies will actually form a ball, float, and flow with
the water until they can erupt onto the first nice dry area they find.
Fire ant colonies also have been seen as ribbons and streamers of ants
floating on the water. As the flood waters recede, these floating fire ant
colonies will get onto anything that they contact. They are attracted to
anything that might give them shelter until a mound can be established.
This means that piles of debris or items from flooded homes are extremely
inviting to the fire ant. At this time, a general treatment for controlling the
fire ants is out of the question. Each colony has to be dealt with on a
site-by-site basis.
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