I was reading another board, not the most reliable, and there was mention of floating balls of fire ants that occur during floods. I did a quick google search and came up with a few references, but I cannot tell if they are legitimate or how widespread this is.
Do people actually DIE from encounters with floating balls of fire ants?
Is this a common occurence in floods or did it just happen once or twice and the story got around?
Thanks,
MC$E
The Houston Chronicle seems pretty reliable.
Also this from a newletter from Texas A & M University.
I’ve seen the ants do this with my own eyes. But instead of a ball, it’s more of a gang raft of ants (like maybe 15-20 inches in diameter, and two or three ants thick). I’ve never heard of anyone being harmed by them in that state, but I wouldn’t want to let that raft settle on my foot.
I have never seen them in a floating ball, but I saw them in attack formation entering my house once. I had off-white tile in my living room and I was laying on the couch watching TV. I had chicken earlier in the day and I think they were following the scent. They came marching in, I mean marching, they walk like pit bull dogs when they are in attack mode. Defiant little buggers.
The biggest threat to the floating fireant gangs are livestock. Who get trapped in the flood, and get in the way of these floating colonies. I have seen news shows where they show these floating colonies.
To kill fire ants: Use Diazinon granules for large areas or spray for small.
I lived right on the Trinity River a few miles north of Lake Livingston for a few years and I can promise you that fire ants do float in “colonies” when there’s a flood.
We had at least two or three floods a year where the river was out of it’s banks and I’ve seen hundreds of these “balls” floating downstream. I would not want one on me.
Nothing to add, sorry. But the title really made me say “Goodness gracious!”
Additional confirmation here from a veteran of many Louisiana backwaters. Touching the rafts is a bad thing, as the surviving ants are inclined to scramble onto any solid surface they find. Fortunately, many (perhaps the majority) of the ants in any given raft are dead. They form the rafts by linking limbs together and piling on, and the outer/bottom layers quickly drown, but stay hooked into the structure.
I have seen several animals (two cows and a dog) get swarmed by floating colonies; in each case, the animal got rid of them by going for a swim. Colonies can float, but individual ants don’t last long in the water.
Ortho puts out a fire ant killer called “Orthene” that’s fairly effective. Smells vaguely like rotting meat, but it kills the ants. There’s also “Amdro”, but it hasn’t worked well for years - I think the fire ants adapted to it sometime in the late '80s.
The best way to kill fire ants? I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit.
Having never seen a fire ant I’m curious, other than the bite are they regular ants? I’ve never had any problems killing an ant hill when I was a kid (granted I used unconventional methods prohibited by the UN).
Are they large or special in any way?
Do they make ant hills? Or are they more like roaches?
Never mind. Just read up on fire ants.
Reason # 232475 to never move south 
AFAICT, they are normal ants. They are not large (smaller than army ants), and they are noticeable by the red colour. And they do make hills, with surprising speed. And they spread quickly. I had 3 fire ant hills on my front lawn this weekend. Hopefully the bastards are dead now.
Yep it 's called ‘rafting’, fire ants aren’t the only species of ants that do it either, army ants also raft in the wet season in the Amazon.
You guys all forget to mention that fire ants are evil little bastards and killing them is doing a service to the world.
Or you could get a really really big magnifying glass…
Many types of ants are able to link limbs and create clumps or bridges or other forms. As MC mentions, army (or legionary, or driver) ants regularly do this under various circumstances. For example, some species can cross gaps up to a foot across by clinging to each other to make a bridge.
Also, some army ants don’t dig what you’d think of as a typical nest. They will temporarily create a stationary base, for egg laying and brooding, and then move on. During the longer migratory phase, they will clump up into what’s called a “bivouac” to rest each night; it’s a squirming ball of entomophobic horror that can be as large as three or four feet around (sometimes containing a million individual ants), usually hanging in a tree hollow or similar semi-enclosure, with the larvae and queen at the center. [More info here](http://www.myrmecology.org/mac/nest.htm#The Bivouac Nests of Army Ants).
And that’s not all. Leaf-cutting and/or weaver ants can also bridge gaps in foliage with their bodies, and then pull the material together. [More info here](http://www.myrmecology.org/mac/nest.htm#Weaver Nests).
Anyway, the point is, it’s not surprising at all that fire ants should be able to do this. It’s a relatively common behavior, myrmecologically speaking.
These intensely creepy images have been brought to you by Wilson and Holldobler’s Pulitzer-prize-winning tome The Ants, which I can recommend as an informative and highly entertaining read.
It’s the only way to be sure.