Fire Ant Workers

A worker ant holding a clutch of eggs. Photo by Charles Barr.

Fire ant workers tending the queen. Photo by S.B. Vinson.

An array of ants of different sizes compared to a queen (right). Photo by Sanford Porter.

Continuing in their development, within 30 days, larger fire ant workers emerge and the fire ant colony begins to grow. Workers start to emerge daily, and within 6 months, several thousand workers can occupy the colony and a “mound” is readily visible.

As the colony matures, the polymorphic (many sizes) nature of the worker becomes more apparent. The largest workers in the colony can be as much as 10 times the size of the smallest workers. At maturity, a monogynous (one queen only) fire ant colony can consist of more than 250,000 fire ants; a polygynous (many queens) fire ant colony can consist of more than 500,000 fire ants.