Fire ant queens. Even if only one queen survives, within a month or so, the colony can expand to thousands of individuals. Some colonies may be polygynous (having multiple queens per nest). Fire ants are resilient and can survive floods. During Hurricane Harvey in Texas in 2017, clumps of fire ants, known as rafts, were seen clumped together on the surface of the water. Each clump had as many as 100,000 individual ants, which formed a temporary structure until finding a new permanent home. Fire ant queens, the reproductive females in their colony, also are generally the largest. Their primary function is
Electric ant little fire ant. In 1999, the Hawaiian State Department of Agriculture proposed a 100% inspection policy on all plant material exported from the state to check for the ant so that it cannot spread to other regions. Generally, better agricultural land management -including the reduction of monocultures and lower crop production- can reduce little fire ant populations. In addition, proper land management plans can alleviate ant population spikes that occur in highly degraded areas. When first constructing an agricultural field, minimizing landscape changes -such a deforestation- can prevent or reduce the population density of the little fire ant. Chemicals and