A mild winter means more fire ants than usual survived this year. They've built mounds to escape the rain-dampened soil underground. We're seeing a lot of fire ants swarming and lots of new brood being produced. Before more the venomous ants are hatched in the next few weeks, Merchant said it is important to take action. He recommends spreading a thin layer of fire ant bait on yards and treating existing mounds individually with an insecticide.
Experts say the best thing is to treat an entire neighborhood at once.
That way, the fire ants don't just move from one yard to the next. There's no way to totally get rid of fire ants, but researchers are experimenting with new treatments for ridding the land of fire ants and for treating allergic reactions.