Fire ants stayed in one part of Virginia for almost 30 years. Now, the invasive species is creeping toward Southwest and Southside Virginia, and a state quarantine to contain them has expanded yet again.
Danville, Lee County and Pittsylvania County are among the 10 Virginia localities that have recently been added to the state quarantine as the warming climate makes western regions of the state more suitable for these small insects.
The ants first appeared in Virginia in 1989 at a golf course in Hampton. Until 2017, they stayed put in Southeast Virginia.
That year, they started to appear in Southside localities. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences extended a fire ant quarantine to some of these localities in response.
Red imported fire ants are a small insect, about an eighth of an inch long or less, but they “pack a powerful punch,” said Eric Day, a Virginia Tech entomologist, or a scientist who studies insects.
Named because their sting creates a burning pain, the red and black mountain-building ants are a threat to agriculture, livestock and people and can even damage electrical equipment.
The purpose of the quarantine is to reduce the spread of fire ants from infested to non-infested areas by restricting the movement of plants that might host them.
VDACS updated the quarantined areas at the end of May, adding 10 new localities: Chesterfield, Lee, Nottoway, Pittsylvania, Prince George and Surry counties, and the cities of Colonial Heights, Danville, Hopewell and Petersburg.
The quarantine is extended to an area when it is deemed “generally infested,” or when mounds can be found ubiquitously throughout the locality, according to VDACS.
Before the most recent quarantine update, there were five Southside and Southwest localities under quarantine. Now, there are eight.
A quarantine helps contain fire ants, but it will not eradicate them, Day said.
“I hate to say it like this, but we do have to learn to live with them,” he said. “They’re not going away, unfortunately, as much as I would like them to. They’re established here.”
The spread westward
In 2009, a fire ant quarantine was imposed in much of the Tidewater area. Because the ants began to spread, the quarantine area was updated in 2019, again in 2022, and again in 2025, now encompassing 18 counties and 15 independent cities in Virginia.
Most of the quarantined localities are the central and southeast parts of Virginia. But as the climate changes, more and more places in the state make good homes for fire ants.
“Warmer winters, warmer summers, that’s been very beneficial for the number of fire ants,” Day said.
Localities along state borders, like those in Southwest and Southside, are not just susceptible to fire ants spreading from other Virginia localities, but from Tennessee and North Carolina, too, Day said.
One of the newest Virginia localities where fire ants have been detected is Lee County, which was included in the 2025 quarantine update.
Its mountainous landscape would have previously been too cold for fire ants to survive. But warmer temperatures and fire ant adaptations allow the insects to live there.
“The fire ants there are hybridized fire ants,” Day said. “They’re a crossing of the red imported fire ant and the black imported fire ant. They’re better adapted to the cold.”
Most of Tennessee is infested with these hybridized fire ants, he said.
“Lee County isn’t a place we were expecting to see fire ants, but when you look at Tennessee it makes sense,” Day said.
Virginia collaborates with these other states — especially Tennessee, although Kentucky has infestations, too — to exchange information and conduct training.
Another unexpected place where fire ants have recently appeared is Albemarle County and the northern edge of Charlotte County.
It’s safe to expect more Virginia localities to come under quarantine in the future, Day said.
Living alongside fire ants
Since fire ants aren’t going away, it’s important to learn how to live with them, said Day. He encourages people to educate themselves about how to comply with the quarantine and what to do if they encounter or are stung by fire ants.
Fire ants spread if they are on articles like nursery stock or sod that are being transported from one area to another. They can spread on their own, but human intervention drastically increases the speed and volume of the spread.
“To date, all imported fire ant infestations appear to have been introduced into Virginia on nursery stock or other plant products from invested areas or by natural spread from nearby infested areas,” said the May quarantine update release from VDACS.
The quarantine prevents those articles from leaving a quarantined or generally infested area unless they’ve met certain qualifiers — for example, receiving treatment to kill fire ants or inspecting each product being moved for the presence of fire ants.
Just because an area isn’t under quarantine doesn’t mean that fire ants aren’t a problem there. Mounds in Danville were discovered in 2022, though the city didn’t reach quarantine status until 2025.
If fire ants and mounds are found in a non-quarantined area, VDACS can come in and treat them, Day said. This changes once the quarantine designation is imposed because VDACS prioritizes new infestations outside of quarantine zones.
“When a county is in quarantine, that means the control of fire ants is thrown back to the residents of that area,” Day said. “It’s up to individual landowners whether they do their own control work or not.”
The Virginia Cooperative Extension offers a fact sheet on how to manage fire ants, what kind of damage they can cause, and what to do if you’re stung.
Shawn Jadrnicek, a Roanoke-based extension agent with Virginia Cooperative Extension, said that fire ant stings are coordinated attacks.
“Fire ants crawl up your legs and wait to bite and sting in a coordinated mass attack, causing maximum damage,” he said in an email. “The bite is painful, followed by a sting while latched on, which is also painful. A single ant can cause multiple stings, leaving white bumps that itch for 2-7 days or longer. Some people may develop allergic reactions requiring medical attention.”
If you get stung, monitor your reaction, said Day. If the reaction is severe, see a medical professional.
And if you spot fire ants, or what you think might be fire ants, call your local extension agent or the VDACS, Jadrnicek said. Virginia Cooperative Extension has agents in every city and county in the state.
“Just educate yourself,” Day said. “Know what the fire ants look like. Know how to avoid them. Know how to treat them.”