Looking for the best fire ant killers? You’re in the right place!
In this guide you’ll learn:
- Our #1 overall best fire ant killer
- Tips about fire ants and removal
- What to do if you find them in your yard or in your home
- The mound drenching and boiling water techniques
- And our 4 favorite products when killing these fire ants
Spreading granules of poison is one of the best ways to kill fire ants and Amdro is one of the best fire ant killers on the market. Amdro will work to kill the entire colony and the queen with a chemical that can get this done in about two weeks. This product is meant to be spread across your entire yard and creates a barrier that prevents ants from entering your home.
Do you know what it feels like to be bitten by a fire ant?
Their name gives you a bit of a hint…
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).
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. He manages Pest Strategies now helping homeowners around the world!
Surrender Fire Ant Killer With Acephate
Features
- Kills a large variety of pests in addition to fire ants
- Powerful and effective pesticide formulation
- Destroys the entire colony
Advion Fire Ant Bait
Features
- A powerful pesticide that provides quick colony eradication
- Effective on all life stages and ant types
- Kills the colony with 48-72 hours
Spectracide HG-96849 One Shot Fire Ant Killer
Features
- Long-lasting residual effect
- Effective when wet
- Kills colony within 48-72 hours
Amdro Ant Block
Features
- Kills Varity of Bugs
- Easy to Apply
- Very Affordable & Great Reviews
Table Of Contents
Top 5 Best Fire Ant Killers
Short on time? Check out our product table below to find out which product we liked best.
What are fire ants?
Fire ants come in over 200 various species.
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 to 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.
An Important Note About Fire Ant Killers
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.
If fire ants are 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 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.
If fire ants are in your lawn…
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.
- Mound Injection: An insecticide is injected into the mound. This can be a potent ant killer, but it may not reach the queen (our goal).
- 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.
Pro Tip:
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.
Any 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.
For more information on ant hill removal, check out this guide.
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.
Fire Ant Product Reviewed
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.
Related Articles
Amdro 100099216 Ant Block Granules
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.
The Good And The Bad
- 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.
The Good And The Bad
- 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.
The Good And The Bad
- A powerful pesticide that provides quick colony eradication
- Effective on all life stages and ant types
- Kills the colony with 48-72 hours
- A little expensive
- Not safe around pets and children
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.
The Good And The Bad
- Long-lasting residual effect
- Effective when wet
- Kills colony within 48-72 hours
- Not as effective as powders or dust