Fire ants are a significant pest because they have the potential to cause serious social, economic, and environmental impacts.
I mean you can't really go anywhere without coming in to encounter fire ants. They seem to be prevalent everywhere.
It's hard to have kids around them—or even as an adult—I mean you get them on you, they're very aggressive so they sting immediately.
We've been dealing with fire ants as far back as the early eighties where I grew up. You figure that many decades and still dealing with the problem.
It stings and it's like a small sting and then it develops into a small blister and it tends to ache and throb like any sting insect. And it's not so much one that's all that painful, but it's when you get attacked by multiples you know.
It's quite easy to be standing in some grass and not realise that you have a whole bunch of fire ants crawling up your leg. You panic and you start brushing as quickly as possible you know, and hope that as few as possible sting you.
They've really affected Texas wildlife as well.
All the ground nesting animals have been affected and reptiles have been affected by fire ants because they just consume whatever they come in contact with. They're quite aggressive in that way in the ecosystem, so we would love to get rid of them.
