Research Paper 

“The Mighty Ants”

Red Imported Fire Ant is their name 

Also known as Solenosis Invicta, but they are the same

Came from South America in late 1930’s

And invasive they became 

Because of their invasiveness 

They are seen everywhere

Fit in like glue

Wherever they go

Because of their adaptability 

Easy to tell by their characteristics

From red to brown

To the stingers on their tail

Red Fire Ants are easy to identify all around

Very aggressive the ants are

Can see that they are strong from afar 

The ants are a force to be reckoned with

The danger of their stings

Stabbing pain it brings

Can be fatal 

To those who meet the mighty ants  

From their stingers to their diet

They are very interesting 

Omnivorce the ants are  

Eat many things that’s bizarre

Diet contains fruit, animals, and crops

The ants live in things called mounds

Use them to make tunnels underground

The tunnels are used to get around

In the mounds live ants

Formed as colonies

With lots of ants, probably one million 

With their queen

Who can live up to 7 years

Those are the Red Imported Fire Ants

Those are the Red imported Fire Ants

 The Rising Threat of Fire Ants

Introduction

Whenever an animal becomes invasive, it can affect everything around it. Invasive animals can come from many different areas and can overpopulate places where they shouldn’t be. One example of an animal that has caused danger around the world due to their presence is the ants. The Red Imported Fire Ants have become invasive and can be seen all over the United States and other areas. The Red Imported Fire Ants are slowly harming organisms everywhere they go. They are bad for the world because they destroy crops, affect humans, hurt ecosystems, and harm animals all at the same time. Researchers are currently trying to find ways to know where the ants are headed next so that they can stop them before they start to create an even bigger problem. The ants need to be taken down to protect people, the economy, and the ecosystem, because if we don’t stop them now, they will soon become an even more dangerous species.  

Taxonomy and Description

Red Fire Ants can be told apart from other insects because of their interesting features. The Red Fire Ant, also known as Solenopsis invicta, is a type of ant that is quite similar to the common house ant except it has a more aggressive behavior (Hunt). Red Fire Ants are known as small working ants that can “vary from 1/8 to 1/4 inches in size” (Red Imported Fire Ant). The Red Fire Ant can be dark red or brown with long antennae. The antennas are "two-segmented" with a club (Red Imported Fire Ant). Depending on whether the ant is female or male, people can identify it by its color. Female ants are more red and brown, while male ants tend to be black (Gunawardana). Red Fire Ants have a hard exoskeleton, which is used for protection. Like most insects, the Red Fire Ants have six legs. The Ants also “possess an abdominal stinger” which is used to inject their victim with venom (Fire Ant Anatomy). Living organisms can be ordered by Hierarchy. Red Fire Ants are classified in the kingdom Animalia because they are multicellular. The Red Fire Ants are also in class Insecta which is the largest group,  because they have six legs and antennae (Classification of Fire Ant).  

Habitat

Red Fire Ants can be found all over the world. The Red Imported Fire Ants first originated in South America. They are native to Brazil, in the state of Mato Grosso (Red Imported Fire Ant). Due to the ant’s importation, they can be found anywhere. The Red Fire Ants were discovered to be “transported around the world by cargo and goods” (Dzombak). In the 1950’s the Red Fire Ants were found in 13 U.S. states in the south, but they are continuing to spread north and west (Red Imported Fire Ant). Not only have they been found in the United States, but the ants can also be seen in Mexico, China, and Australia (Hunt). Red Fire Ants can live almost anywhere due to their adaptability. In the future, Red Fire Ants might be everywhere in the world. The Red Imported Fire Ants “are the ultimate survivors” meaning they can quickly adapt to almost any climate (Behavior). Normally Red Fire Ants would favor nice warm climates, but they do have to adapt. They adjust “their nests depending on the weather and surroundings” (Behavior). The Ants tend to live as colonies in the soil where their habitat is (Gunawardana). The nests of the ants can “appear as dome-shaped mounds or be flat” (What to Look for When Looking for Fire Ants). The mounds can be “10-60 cm tall and have no visible surface entrance” (Gunawardana). In the nest, the Fire Ants create underground tunnels to be used as entrances or exits of the mound. The Ant's nests are found in open areas like croplands and roadsides (What to Look for When Looking for Fire Ants). Red Imported Fire Ants make their habitat almost anywhere because they can live in any conditions.

Diet

The diet of Red Imported Fire Ants includes plants such as vegetables and dead animals. Red Fire Ants are omnivores, they can eat seeds,  “ripening fruit, and dead plant and animal tissues” (Gunawardana). Red Fire Ants enjoy berries, citrus, and honeydew  (Red Imported Fire Ants). The Red Imported Fire Ants enjoy fruits because of the sweet taste the fruit gives off (Martin). They can cause damage to the plants by consuming the developing fruit (Red Imported Fire Ant). Other than fruits, Red Fire Ants are also known to eat other insects such as “snails, lizards, and small mammals” (Hossain). They are prey to chickens, snakes, possums, and even birds. The ants' predators will peck on either the ants hill or the ants until they surrender and die (Hossain). When getting their food, the Red Imported Fire Ants work in groups. Together the ants gather, hunt, and eat their prey (Hossain). The ants will use “their stinger to inject the victim with alkaloid venom” causing them to die after an allergic reaction (Fire Ant Anatomy). Due to their known powerful stings, “ants can be both prey and predators.” This is because the ants' stinger can be used to kill their predators (Martin). The Red Fire Ants' diet is very interesting because they eat whatever they can find.

Adverse Effects

The Red Imported Fire Ants have harmed the world in many ways economically and environmentally. The Red Fire Ant is known to be a “major economic pest” in the United States (Greenberg). The environmental effect of the Red Imported Fire Ants is that they harm humans and other living creatures. Since the Red Fire Ants have been imported, they have caused damage wherever they are. Red Fire Ants hurt the ecosystems by "consuming resources and killing other organisms" (Dzombak). One way The Red Imported Fire Ants have hurt the ecosystem is by being a pest to "native wildlife" (Greenberg). On top of that, Red Fire Ants are known to harm animals. Their dangerous stings can cause suffering to other small animals (Red Imported Fire Ant). Other than hurting the environment, Red Fire Ants also can be a problem for people. The Red Fire Ant is a known "nuisance" to humans because of the stings on children (Dzombak). The Red Fire Ants also have a bad impact on the field workers. When stung by a Red Fire Ant, people can get secondary infections, permanent scars, and cause "chest pains or nausea or lapse into a coma from one sting" because of the ant's venom (Red Imported Fire Ant). The Red Imported Fire Ants are also hurting the farming lifestyle and economy. One example is Texas which has spent “$1.1 billion annually on pesticides for fire ant control” (Greenberg). People will have to keep buying pesticides if the ant problem doesn’t resolve soon because they are hurting the crops as well. The ants are busy eating away the farmer's corn and developing fruits and crops such as “beans, berries, okra, and citrus” (Red Imported Fire Ants). By doing this, the ants are damaging plants, which will cause trouble for the farmers. Even in cities, the Red Fire Ants are known to be a problem. Ants' habitats are found in places where they shouldn’t be. The ant mounds can be found in electrical circuitry, which will affect humans by short circuiting the air conditioning, telephone boxes, etc (Red Imported Fire Ants). If people don’t solve the pest problems soon, we will continue having problems with these annoying insects, and soon these problems will only become worse. 

Conclusion

The Red Imported Fire Ant will continue to impact the world negatively unless people find a way to fix it. People are currently trying to figure out different ways to slowly get rid of the ants. At the moment, researchers are busy studying the ants so that they know how to stop them and know where they are headed next. They have studied that, because of the increase in the Red Imported Fire Ants, “ant stings had increased since 2019”. The ants also have been spreading from parts of the United States, China, and soon Europe (Hunt). Knowing where the ants will strike next should give researchers and scientists an advantage. In the control department, programmers are finding ways to eliminate the ants. So far they have figured out a way to get rid of the Red Fire Ants nest. People have found a "non-chemical" way to get rid of the ant's nest. By boiling water and pouring it onto the mound it gives an effective way to get rid of them (Red Imported Fire Ant). Researchers have also started using “bait-formulated insecticide products” that kill the ants, which are like chemicals (Gunawardana). This method is effective because it kills the workers and the queen. By killing the queen, it doesn’t allow new eggs to be produced, therefore it could cause a downfall in their population (Gunawardana). Limiting where they can go and where they live ants should start decreasing the chances of overpopulation and hopefully decrease the amount of Fire Ants in different areas.

Works Cited

“Behaviour.” National Red Fire Ant Eradication Program, www.fireants.org.au/look/biology-and-ecology/behaviour. 

“Classification of Fire Ant.” Ant Pests, 2023, ant-pests.extension.org/classification-of-fire-ants/. 

Dzombak, Rebecca. “Invasive Ants Are a Bigger Threat Than We Thought.” National Geographic, 20 Jan 2023, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/alien-ants-worldwide-threat

“Fire Ant Anatomy.” Orkin, Fire Ant Anatomy: Physiology & Characteristics of Fire Ants | Orkin.

Greenberg, Les, and John Klotz. “Red Imported Fire Ant.” UC Riverside, 2023, cisr.ucr.edu/invasive-species/red-imported-fire-ant.

Gunawardana, D. “Solenopsis invicta.” Cabi Digital Library, 2023, www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/cabicompendium.50569. 

Hossain, Mukit. “What do Red Fire Ants Eat? 7 Foods They Eat.” Feeding Nature, 11 Sept 2022, What Do Red Fire Ants Eat? 7 Foods They Eat - Feeding Nature.

Hunt, Katie. “We Knew This Day Would Come: One of World’s Most Invasive Species Reaches Europe.” CNN, 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/09/11/europe/invasive-red-fire-ant-europe-italy-scn/index.html. 

Martin, Nicholas. “What Do Fire Ants Eat? Incredible Facts About Their Diet.” Pest Control Hacks, pestcontrolhacks.com/what-do-fire-ants-eat/. 

“Red Imported Fire Ant.” Oklahoma State University, 2023, extension.okstate.edu/programs/digital-diagnostics/insects-and-arthropods/red-imported-fire-ant-solenopsis-invicta/.

“What to Look for When Looking for Fire Ants.” National Red Fire Ant Eradication Program, www.fireants.org.au/look/nests.