Can Fire Ants Kill a Cow?

Although not very common, fire ants can kill a cow, and animals that are weak or sick are the easiest targets. Hire Fire Ant Control, LLC to help eliminate these treacherous pests from your farm and pastures!

Fire Ant Control, LLC is Southwest Florida’s trusted fire ant expert. We provide the most effective and affordable fire ant solution for residential, commercial and agricultural properties in South Florida and anywhere else our services are needed.

Headquartered in Bokeelia, Florida, Fire Ant Control, LLC and our sister companies serve the entire imported fire ant quarantine area of the southeastern U.S., and are capable of treating up to 1,000 acres per day.

We are so confident that our treatment works, we guarantee that it will rid 85-95% of the fire ants from your property for four months at a time, or your money back.

About Fire Ants

Red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) were accidentally introduced into Alabama from South America in the 1930s. They have since become a notorious, troublesome pest and have invaded more than 360 million acres across the southeastern U.S., California and New Mexico, and they continue to spread.

Fire ants build nests outdoors in mounds of soil and live beneath them in an intricate network of underground tunnels. They prefer open, sunny areas such as pastures, crop fields and lawns, and will form either single-queen or multi-queen colonies.

Within each colony are workers and queens – from 100,000 to 500,000 fire ants in a single colony. Queens can live for two to six years and lay from 1,500 to 5,000 eggs per day, enabling fire ants to multiply rapidly.

When a colony is disturbed, worker ants will aggressively rise up from beneath the mound and bite or sting humans and animals standing nearby, first gripping the skin and then injecting a venom known as Solenopsin into their victims. These potentially deadly stings can harm both humans and animals.

Fire ants can be deadly to farm animals, especially very young animals, caged animals, and those that are old and unable to move out of harm’s way. In cattle operations, they can injure and kill newborn calves by stinging soft moist tissues, including the eyes, and prefer to bite/sting in areas with little or no hair, such as the ears, eyes, muzzle and abdomen.

According to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, fire ants don’t intend to kill cows or other livestock but, if the animals move during an attack, it can irritate or injure the stinging ants, triggering hundreds of them to sting simultaneously. The multiple stinging can cause more damage and may even result in death.

What Next?

Fire Ant Control’s proven fire ant treatment zeroes in on sterilizing the queen. Our granular bait is ingested by the workers and carried down into the colony, causing the fire ants to die naturally.  Extermination is not instantaneous but, once the queen has been sterilized, the entire colony will disappear, and no new ants will be born.

Regulated and approved for use on public and private lands, our bait contains an insect growth regulator that sterilizes the queen and is approved for use around people, pets, livestock, and on farmland, pastures, and hay fields.

Fire Ant Control’s service is fully licensed and insured, and guaranteed for four months. Because fire ants fly to mate, however, they will eventually come back. For this reason, we recommend having your property treated three times a year for the best results.

If you are concerned whether fire ants can kill your cow, call Fire Ant Control, LLC today at (239) 312-8200 for a free estimate!