Fire Ants
Despite their fairly small size, a fire ant's sting is why they are appropriately named "fire ant". Fire ants, an exotic ant species to the United States, had quickly spread from Alabama in the 1930s throughout most of the southern states.
Mounds appear in yards often after a rain. If their mounds develop close to the foundations of a house, they will move into the walls of a house to build their nests and very easy access to water and food. An interesting note is that a small mound appearing around their hole conceals a large colony with depths of six to ten feet deep and may contain thousands of ants.
Texas Leaf Cutter Ants
Texas Leaf Cutter Ants also known as a "cut ant" are extremely destructive to landscape plants, gardens and some agricultural crops in Texas. Their name comes from their habit of cutting leaves and other plant parts. They can strip or kill small plants, small trees, weeds, and grasses. Unlike fire ants that are omnivorous, leaf cutter ants take the leaf fragments they collect into their nests where it develops a fungus garden. This fungus is their only known source of food.
These ants live in colonies so large—sometimes 50-80 feet across and up to 2 million ants per colony—that it can be difficult to know where one colony ends and the other begins. Due to their large colonies, just treating the obvious surface entrances may not be effective as "feeder holes" can extend up to 500 feet away.
Carpenter Ants
Often black in color--but can be reddish or yellowish in color--Carpenter Ants reside both outdoors and indoors in moist, decaying, or hollow wood. Although their name is synonymous with wood and unlike termites that eat wood or cellulose, carpenter ants do not eat wood but feed on a variety of food people eat—particularly sweets and meats. They also feed on other insects.
Carpenter ants develop galleries by moving wood out of their way which weaken structural wood and trees. Left untreated tree limbs or whole portions of a tree may fall.
Pro-Tex Pest Management can evaluate what methods to use for treating your yard depending on the ant problem you have that is safe for you, your children, and pets.
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