Red Imported Fire Ant
Also known as RIFA. Solenopsis invicta
Aggressive stinging ants that build dome mounds and swarm when disturbed.
Photo: no rights reserved (CC0) · public domain/CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Reddish-brown, 2–6 mm, with workers of varying sizes in the same colony. They build dome-shaped dirt mounds with no visible entry hole on top.
Open sunny lawns, along driveways and sidewalks, and around utility boxes. Worse after Florida's summer rains.
- Dome-shaped dirt mounds in the yard, especially after rain
- Painful stings that leave a white pustule a day later
- Ants boiling up aggressively when the mound is disturbed
Stings cause burning welts and pustules; people allergic to the venom can have severe, even life-threatening reactions. They damage electrical equipment and threaten pets and small children.
Spot-treating a mound just makes it relocate and split. Rhino broadcasts a yard-wide bait the workers carry to every queen, then treats visible mounds directly for a fast, colony-wide kill.
Our Fire Ant Control service