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
Black imported fire ant them from the bite of other insects. Pustules are surrounded by reddened swelling (wheal) with the redness (erythema) extending beyond (flare). The extent of reaction to imported fire ant bites is variable depending on the quantity of allergic (IgE) antibodies an individual has already formed. There may also be differences in the venom from the two species that result in more pronounced wheal and flare formation after bites from BIFA. Black imported fire ant The black imported fire ant ("Solenopsis richteri"), or simply BIFA, is a species of ant in the genus "Solenopsis" (fire ants). It was long thought to