Economical Impacts

Pesticides and eradication programs are estimated to cost $65.4 million a year and that's just on the fire ants alone. Fire ant nests can cause problems in lawns, sporting fields and golf courses.Fire ants like to build their nest near sensitive electrical wires and this made lead to electrical shorts or in extreme cases house fires. They can also affect the tourism industry after all who wants to go to a place infested with biting, stinging ants that would like nothing better than to eat you. Fire ants can also have an effect on imported and exported goods due to some agencies restricting certain materials to try and quarantine the ant population. Fire ants often times attack new born farm animals and the new borns may die if the ants get into the respiratory system and a serious fire ant infestation might prevent farm animals from getting food or water without being stung. Finally the ants nest often times destroy crop's root systems which kills the crops and the money that would have been made off those crops.