Fire ants in Oregon? - Ask Extension
I have a new nest of red, medium-sized ants in my yard and they run 4x as fast as any other ants I've seen. First red ants I've seen here too. Could t...
Knowledgebase
Fire ants in Oregon? #838358
Asked June 29, 2023, 8:59 PM EDT
I have a new nest of red, medium-sized ants in my yard and they run 4x as fast as any other ants I've seen. First red ants I've seen here too. Could they be fire ants? If so should I report them somewhere?
Lane County Oregon
Expert Response
Hi Susan,
Those sound like interesting ants, but I can't tell for sure what type they are from your photos. However, I don't think they are fire ants (Solenopsis invicta).
Fire ants have 2 humped segments between the thorax and abdomen. See a photo here to see what that looks like...
https://bugguide.net/node/view/1183845/bgimage
The ant you have looks like it only has 1 humped segment between the thorax and abdomen.
If you are interested to know which type of ant you have in your yard, you could collect some specimens and bring or send them to us at the OSU Plant Clinic for identification. Here are instructions for how to submit a sample if you'd like to do that...
https://bpp.oregonstate.edu/plant-clinic/insect-id-clinic/how-submit-insect-and-spider-materials
Yours,
Those sound like interesting ants, but I can't tell for sure what type they are from your photos. However, I don't think they are fire ants (Solenopsis invicta).
Fire ants have 2 humped segments between the thorax and abdomen. See a photo here to see what that looks like...
https://bugguide.net/node/view/1183845/bgimage
The ant you have looks like it only has 1 humped segment between the thorax and abdomen.
If you are interested to know which type of ant you have in your yard, you could collect some specimens and bring or send them to us at the OSU Plant Clinic for identification. Here are instructions for how to submit a sample if you'd like to do that...
https://bpp.oregonstate.edu/plant-clinic/insect-id-clinic/how-submit-insect-and-spider-materials
Yours,
