Red imported fire ants are omnivores, and foragers are considered to be scavengers rather than predators. The ants' diet consists of dead mammals, arthropods, insects, earthworms, vertebrates, and solid food matter such as seeds. However, this species prefers liquid over solid food. The liquid food the ants collect is sweet substances from plants or honeydew-producing hemipterans. Arthropod prey may include dipteran adults, larvae and pupae, and termites. The consumption of sugar amino acid is known to affect recruitment of workers to plant nectars. Mimic plants with sugar rarely have workers to feed on them, whereas those with sugar and amino acids have considerable numbers. The habitats where they live may determine the food they collect the most; for example, forage success rates for solid foods are highest in lakeshore sites, while high levels of liquid sources were collected from pasture sites. Specific diets can also alter the growth of a colony, with laboratory colonies showing high growth if fed honey-water. Colonies that feed on insects and sugar-water can grow exceptionally large in a short period of time, whereas those that do not feed on sugar-water grow substantially slower. Colonies that do not feed on insects cease brood production entirely. Altogether, the volume of food digested by nestmates is regulated within colonies. Larvae are able to display independent appetites for sources such as solid proteins, amino acid solutions, and sucrose solutions, and they also prefer these sources over dilute solutions. Such behaviour is due to their capability to communicate hunger to workers. The rate of consumption depends on the type, concentration, and state of the food on which they feed. Workers tend to recruit more nestmates to food sources filled with high levels of sucrose than to protein.