Queen ants can live seven years or more, while worker ants generally live about five weeks, although they can survive much longer. The winged ants live in the mound until their mating flight, which usually occurs in the afternoon, following a rainy period. Mating flights are most common in the spring and fall. Males die soon after mating, while the fertilized queen begins looking for a suitable nesting site, sheds her wings, and begins digging a chamber in which to start a new colony. Sometimes several queens can be found in a single nesting site.
Colonies frequently migrate from one site to another.
The queen needs only about six workers to start a new colony. They can develop a new mound, several hundred feet away from their previous location, almost overnight. Educate children about the fire ant and its potential hazards. Do not enclose or tie pets near the fire ant mounds. Individual ant mounds can be destroyed by pouring one to two gallons of hot tap water into the mound.