Where do fire ants live?

Fire ants prefer to build mounds in open, well-lit areas, such as parks and fields, although they can also be found in rotten logs and stumps in wooded areas. Some colonies will also develop under buildings.

The visible mounds of fire ant nests are dome-shaped and composed of rather loose soil. Unlike other ants' nests, the exit holes are not at the top of these mounds but scattered around it, sometimes at a considerable distance. This is because the visible mound is almost incidental to the real structure of the nest, it being the soil excavated and pushed up during construction.

Nevertheless, disturbing the mound will result in a swift retaliation of stings from the swarms of worker ants therein.