Fire ants breed between 600 and 800 feet in the air. After damp weather, breeding males and females fly into the air and mate. The male then dies and the female starts her new colony. This new queen can lay up to 1,500 eggs per brood. It only takes a fire ant 30 days to grow from an egg to an adult.
Damp weather is a signal for fire ant activity.
Not only do they breed in the damp spring and fall, they also use this time to expand their home and clear blocked tunnels. They then build a large mound of loose soil above the nest. It is from this mound that the mating couples depart. Only a quarter of an inch long, the fire ant is a very small insect. They are reddish in color.