About Fire Ants in the East Valley
Fire ants are among the most aggressive pests in the East Valley. The most common species here is the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta), known for its painful sting and territorial behavior. Unlike other ant species that avoid confrontation, fire ants attack in swarms when their mound is disturbed, gripping skin with their mandibles and stinging repeatedly.
A single colony can contain over 200,000 workers, and a mature queen can produce thousands of eggs per day. Fire ants build dome-shaped mounds in open, sunny areas — lawns, driveways, sidewalk edges, landscaping beds, and around irrigation boxes. Their mounds can appear overnight and multiply quickly across a property, making early treatment essential.
Where Fire Ants Hide and How They Get Into Your Yard
Fire ant colonies live primarily underground, with tunnel networks that can extend several feet deep and radiate outward from the visible mound. They prefer warm, open soil with access to moisture, which is why irrigated lawns and landscaping beds in the East Valley are prime habitat.
New colonies are established when winged queens leave an existing colony during mating flights, typically in spring and early summer. After mating, a queen lands, sheds her wings, and burrows into the soil to start a new mound. Fire ants can also be introduced to a property through contaminated soil, mulch, sod, and potted plants. Once established, a colony is extremely difficult to eliminate without professional treatment because the queen is located deep underground.
When Are Fire Ants Most Active in the East Valley?
Fire ants are most active in spring and early summer when colonies expand and new queens establish mounds. Monsoon season can temporarily reduce surface activity as colonies move deeper, but they resurface quickly. They remain a threat from March through October in the East Valley.
How to Get Rid of Fire Ants
Store-bought ant sprays and granules can kill surface workers, but they almost never reach the queen. Without eliminating the queen, the colony survives and either rebuilds the mound or relocates to a new spot a few feet away. Home remedies like boiling water and dish soap have the same limitation.
Professional fire ant treatment uses a combination of broadcast bait and direct mound treatment. Broadcast bait is spread across the yard and carried by foraging workers back to the queen, slowly eliminating the colony from the inside. Direct mound treatments using liquid or granular products kill the colony faster for high-traffic areas or large mounds. Ongoing seasonal treatments prevent re-infestation from neighboring properties and new mating flights.
