Fire Ant Control in Georgia
By Mark Sargent, President of High Priority Pest Services · Updated October 7, 2026
Imported fire ants are established across the entire state of Georgia, and unlike most pests on this site they are not something you eliminate. They are something you manage. Any company promising to make your property permanently fire-ant-free is either misunderstanding the insect or hoping you do — new colonies fly in from surrounding land every year, and a treated yard sitting next to an untreated pasture will be recolonized.
What you can realistically get is a yard your family and pets can use without watching every step, which is a reasonable goal and an achievable one.
Why the Mound You See Is Not the Problem
A fire ant mound is a ventilation and temperature structure, not the colony. The workers you disturb when you step on one are a small fraction of the population, and the queen is well below, often a foot or more down depending on soil and season. Colonies also relocate. A mound that disappears after you pour something on it has frequently just moved a few feet, which is why so many homeowners believe they have killed a colony repeatedly.
Mature colonies commonly run in the tens of thousands of workers with a single queen, and many Georgia populations are polygyne — multiple queens per colony, which produces higher mound densities and makes individual mound treatment less effective. If your yard has a lot of mounds close together rather than a few scattered ones, that is likely what you are dealing with.
When They Are Worst Here
Fire ants are most visible in spring and fall, when soil temperature and moisture suit them and mounds are pushed up conspicuously. They go quieter in the heat of midsummer and in cold snaps, moving deeper rather than dying off. Mounds appear dramatically after heavy rain, which is not new colonies arriving but existing ones rebuilding.
Spring and fall are also when broadcast bait works best, because foraging is at its peak. That timing is the whole game with fire ants.
Why They Matter Beyond the Sting
Fire ants sting rather than bite, and they do it repeatedly, which produces the characteristic pattern of white pustules a day or so later. Most people react locally and unpleasantly. A minority react severely, and anyone with a known sting allergy on the property changes the risk calculation considerably.
They are also a genuine problem for equipment and infrastructure. Fire ants are attracted to electrical fields and regularly foul irrigation controllers, well pumps, HVAC disconnects, landscape lighting transformers and utility boxes. On rural property they will nest in hay, around barns and in pasture, where livestock and young animals are at real risk.
The Two-Step Approach, and Why Order Matters
Effective fire ant management uses broadcast bait across the whole treated area first, then individual mound treatment for the mounds that matter most — the ones near the door, the play set, the pool deck. Doing it in that order matters. Individual mound treatment alone leaves the colonies you have not found, and there are always colonies you have not found.
Baits are slow on purpose. Workers carry the bait back and feed it through the colony over weeks, which is what reaches the queen. Expect a few weeks before you see real reduction, and be suspicious of anything that claims to work overnight.
- Do not water in bait. Broadcast bait needs dry ground and no rain for a day or so, or the oil carrier goes rancid and the ants ignore it.
- Do not disturb mounds first. Treating a mound you have just kicked scatters the colony and reduces what gets carried back.
- Do not rely on boiling water or home remedies. They kill the ants they contact and prompt the colony to relocate, usually to somewhere less convenient.
- Do expect to treat again. Reinvasion from adjoining land is normal and is not a failed treatment.
What We Do About Them
Fire ant management is handled as recurring service rather than a one-off call, because that is the only thing that actually holds. Under the Priority Pest Management Plan the yard gets treated on a schedule timed to the seasons when baiting works, with individual treatment of high-traffic mounds as they appear. For acreage, barns and outbuildings we treat the property as one system rather than just the area around the house, and for businesses and managed properties there is commercial and industrial pest management.
If pests return between scheduled visits, so do we, at no extra charge. We are licensed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and work across central and eastern Georgia.
Ready for treatment? See fire ant control for homes. For horse farms, pastures, ball fields and HOA grounds, see our per-acre fire ant control for acreage. The bait products differ on grazed ground and hay fields.
Get the Yard Back
Call or text High Priority Pest Services at (470) 474-2847. Tell us what you are seeing and where, and we will tell you what is likely driving it. Service is available within 24 hours, and our work is backed by the High Priority Promise: if pests return between scheduled visits, so do we, at no extra charge.
Schedule Pest Service
Tell us what you’re seeing and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours. Office hours are Mon–Sun, 8AM–6PM — and we’re available 24/7 for urgent problems, so call (470) 474-2847 if it can’t wait.
Where we treat this
High Priority treats this pest across the Lake Country, including Eatonton, Lake Oconee, Greensboro, Madison and Milledgeville. See all areas we serve, our current prices and the Georgia pest calendar.