Fire ants and pharoah ants have a great impact on human health.

Fire ants are a widespread and growing problem in the U.S. — from North Carolina through Texas to Southern California. Millions of people receive painful bites each year and tens of thousands visit emergency rooms or seek other medical assistance. An estimated 1-3% of people are allergic to fire ant bites. In severe cases death can result from anaphylactic shock response—a massive physiological reaction of loss of blood pressure and depression of vital processes due to hypersensitivity to a substance.

Fire ants are aggressive colonizers infesting some 250-400 million acres in the South. Many colonies have multiple queens or more, each capable of laying 2,000 eggs a day. Fire ants survive by eating almost anything. They defend their nests very aggressively and are known to move queens and young when the nest is in danger.

Small children, especially toddlers, are most at risk from fire ant attacks, since they can stumble onto active mound and receive numerous bites before escaping. Each year a number of serious hospitalizations and deaths are reported from fire ant infested areas.

Pharaoh ants are not as visible or dramatic as fire ants, but where they occur, they are troublesome and difficult to control. Pharaoh ants are excellent foragers, prolific breeders, spread rapidly, feed on a wide variety of food sources, adapt well to changing environments and often have well-established colonies before being detected.