We recommend the best products through an independent review process, and advertisers do not influence our picks. We may receive compensation if you visit partners we recommend. Read our advertiser disclosure for more info.
We recommend the best products through an independent review process, and advertisers do not influence our picks. We may receive compensation if you visit partners we recommend. Read our advertiser disclosure for more info.
Ed has been working in the pest control industry for years helping 1,000's of homeowners navigate the world of insect and rodent management.
Updated On
April 21, 2024
Why You Can Trust Us
Today’s Homeowner exists to help you maintain or improve your home safely and effectively. We uphold strict editorial standards and carefully vet the advice and resources referenced in our articles. Click below to learn more about our review process and how we earn money.
Fire ants are some of the worst pests to have in your garden or house. When you approach and disturb them, they’ll bite you and then sting you with their abdomen. Their stings are painful and can sometimes feel like that part of your body is on fire (hence their name).
This article gives advice on the best fire ant killers that you can use to protect yourself, your family, and your pets (because they bite them too).
The common ones include native fire ants, red ants, and black fire ants. It’s important to know how to identify them from other species. You tend to find the pests in your garden, parks, and in the cracks on the floor.
Larger colonies can have more than 250,000 workers that cover huge distances in search of food. The workers tend to have a reddish color and are omnivorous, which means they eat both vegetables and meat. You can learn more about their biology and habits here. Large colonies can also destroy electric wiring around your property.
There’s nothing worse than losing power in your house because of ants right?
What Should You Look For When Killing Fire Ants?
The mound is the most characteristic sign. Fire ants tend to tunnel underground rather than having the main entrance in the center and the soil can have a fluffy appearance, especially after heavy rain.
Before you choose your product, you need to consider if they’re located indoors or outdoors and how fast you want to eradicate them.
Typically, fire ants are not the type of ant that will want to come into your house for food. Although one type, the “red imported fire ant” may venture into your home, so be careful.
Today’s Homeowner Tips
Fire ants tend to be a special kind of ant that requires a special kind of ant treatment. In this guide, you’ll find we recommend specialized products for fire ants rather than general “ant killers” like you might find on other websites.
How to Exterminate Fire Ants in Your Home
Ants tend to come indoors during periods of hot and dry weather or after having their mound destroyed during heavy rain.
You should first determine their point of entry and seal it off.
If it’s not causing you an immediate problem and you don’t know where the mound is, consider baiting. This uses a slow acting poison that workers take back to the mound to infect the others. The queen usually dies within a week and the colony in two.
Insecticide sprays can contain some of the best poisons for killing ants, give immediate results and ants die when they come into contact with it. However, this only kills the ones that are there and may deter others from any baits that you’re using.
Just remember… If you have ants in your house you want to stick to traps and baits.
Mound treatment is one of the best ways to kill the fire ants that are outdoors. It has an immediate effect and takes a few days to see results. The common types of mound treatment are listed below:
Mound drenching: A toxic liquid or boiling water is poured over the mound. This kills all the fire ants it comes into contact with. This treatment option might not kill the queen or those ants that are buried deep underground.
Surface dust/granules: Granules or powders with insecticides are applied to the top of the mound and/or around your yard. This method has been seen to do some serious mound damage and reach the queen.
Baiting: Another tried and true method in the ant killing world. It’s simple, baiting works.
Today’s Homeowner Tips
For mound treatment, avoid the rainy days and really hot days. Rain makes the ant killing product unappealing to ants and hot days push the bugs deeper underground.
Are there home remedies to kill fire ants?
The most common home remedies are to either to pour boiling water over the mound or if you want to embrace your inner pyromaniac, drench it in gasoline and set fire to it.
See the videos below for “professional” demonstrations of both methods…
Both options may be able to help you with your ant problem. Obviously, setting fire to your ant hill may seem extreme, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Other safer options include mixing citric acid with hot and soapy water. You should always remember that home remedies will never be as good as the best commercial ant killers that are available.
Some claim home remedies are safer, but this isn’t always true. Fire ants can cause major problems and you should do whatever you can to eradicate them to protect yourself and your family.
Top 5 Best Fire Ant Killers
Now that you know the ins and outs of battling fire ants, it’s time to take a look at products that work to kill them. Here are the top 5 best fire ant killers available. Some products work in the short term whereas others offer a longer method of killing action.
Using bait to kill fire ants is much better than using contact sprays. Bait taps into the strong sense of smell that fire ants use to find food. Once the ants pick up the granules that are coated in an attractive scent, the workers take the poison back to the colony.
Over the course of about 2 weeks, the poison is consumed by the entire colony along with the queen ant. What is great about bait is that this is a treatment that appeals to ant’s eating habits as opposed to hoping that spray insecticides reach all ants in the colony.
Although the eradication process can take up to 2 weeks, this delayed reaction is effective for killing the colony as an entire unit. Once the queen ant dies, it’s game over for any workers or soldiers left behind.
One bottle will cover most moderately-sized yards with up to 1,080 feet of coverage. For best results, spread out the granules with an insecticide spreader like this one. Check the weather forecast and make sure to spread the granules when the weather is expected to be clear for at least 2 weeks. Rain and moisture will not deactivate the poison, but heavy rains can decrease the effectiveness.
Lasts for up to 3 months in ideal weather conditions
Creates a barrier around your home by providing the ants with an outdoor food source
Also kills carpenter ants and black ants
Kills all life stages and types of ants in a colony
Not as effective during areas with heavy rain
Not effective against Argentine ants
Surrender Fire Ant Killer With Acephate
Not all yards will have multiple fire ant colonies, so buying bags and bottles of granules may be a waste in these situations. For only one or two fire ant beds, a product like Surrender Fire Ant Killer is a powerful option for stray fire ant beds.
The main ingredient in this product is acephate which is a potent central nervous system antagonist in insects. Surrender Fire Ant Killer comes in the form of a powder, which works a little differently from granules.
Once you shake the powder over the top of a fire ant mound, the acephate seeps slowly down into the bed, and the effect is even stronger if you mix the powder in water and use it as a spray insecticide in a gallon sprayer.
If you use it as a powder, the ants cannot avoid walking through the poison or spreading the poison by touching other ants deep in the bed. As a spray insecticide, the liquid penetrates deep into the mound and even deep enough to reach the queen if you saturate the bed.
A downside to this product is that it can only be shipped to AL, AR, FL, GA, KS, LA, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, and WV.
Kills a large variety of pests in addition to fire ants
Powerful and effective pesticide formulation
Destroys the entire colony
Kills the colony in one application
Can only be shipped to 15 states
Foul odor
One bottle is meant to treat 1 or 2 fire ant beds at most
Advion Fire Ant Bait
Another highly effective fire ant bait is Advion Fire Ant Bait. I have used this product in the past and within 3 days, the entire fire ant bed was filled with dead ants.
Advion uses the baiting system to lure workers with an attractive scent by which they carry back the poisonous bait to the colony. Unlike some baits, the active ingredient indoxacarb is incredibly potent (and a bit dangerous for pets) but frequent monitoring of pets and small children should reduce any toxicity exposure.
Indoxacarb is so toxic to fire ants that nearly an entire colony can be wiped out in as little as 2 days. This is one of the more expensive baits but it also works the quickest.
Long-lasting residual effect
Effective when wet
Kills colony within 48-72 hours
Not as effective as powders or dust
Spectracide HG-96849 One Shot Fire Ant Killer
Spectracide’s One-Shot Fire Ant Killer is another affordable ant killer that uses indoxacarb as an active ingredient. This chemical is a fast-acting central nervous system antagonist and the bait is coated in an attractant in granular form.
I like this product because it has a strong residual life of up to 3 months. An entire colony can be wiped out in as little as 48-72 hours. Another great benefit is that water does not degrade the granules once wet.
Use the form below to get price estimates from local providers:
Get Free Pest Control Estimates
Connect with local pest control professionals near you.
