How to deal with fire ant nuisance and why they are appearing more often

BURGAW, NC (WWAY) — As many people in the Cape Fear continue to recover from recent strong storms, they’re starting to have to deal with an old pest, making a stinging comeback.

Fire ants are a nuisance for homeowners and farmers and can be hard to eliminate.

When a fire ant bite occurs, their sting can cause painful skin irritations for humans and livestock.

Getting rid of fire ants can be difficult because they often migrate to another location underground if you don’t treat them properly.

Mark Seitz is the Pender County Cooperative Extension director.

He said recent storms are why we’ve seen more fire ants recently.

“Reason that we’ve seen so many appear in the last couple of weeks is all the rain we’ve had,” Seitz said. “The colony lives underground and as the water tables rise, the colony is just trying to stay above water and so they will mound up or they’ll push up the dirt up and spread closer to the surface of the ground.”

One possible way to get rid of fire ants is by pouring at least 2 gallons of boiling water into the nest, but Seitz said this might not always work.

Another way is using traps that use bait and poison to kill the queen fire ant.