Pinnacle Pest Protection treats fire ants across Weatherford and Parker County. These pests are more than a nuisance. They threaten your family, your pets, and your property. As a trusted pest control company in Weatherford, we deliver fire ant control that lasts. Your yard becomes safe to use again.
Fire ants are a real problem for anyone who spends time outside. Their stings burn and itch, and they can trigger allergic reactions. Colonies spread fast and are hard to beat without professional help.
Our team identifies, treats, and prevents fire ant infestations. We treat the mounds you can see and the colonies you cannot. The goal is a yard you can walk barefoot in again.
Not sure the ants in your yard are fire ants? We handle every ant species in Parker County. Read our guide to ant control for your Weatherford home, or just call us and we will identify them for you.
Correct ID matters, because fire ants are treated differently than other ants. Here is what sets them apart.
Do not kick or poke a mound to test it. That is how people get stung a dozen times at once. If you are not certain, send us a photo or book a free evaluation.
Fire ants nest in a column of tunnels roughly 12 to 18 inches across and about 3 feet deep. Most of the colony lives below ground where you never see it.
After cool, rainy weather in spring and fall, water collapses their tunnels. The ants clear the blockage and push the loose soil up top. That is the mound. The colony was there the whole time. The rain just made it visible.
The same logic works in reverse. When the ground bakes dry in July, mounds seem to vanish. The ants have moved deeper, not away.
Fire ants are exceptionally resilient pests. A queen can lay hundreds of eggs a day, so a colony rebuilds fast. Most of the activity happens underground, out of reach. And the ants adapt quickly when conditions change.
Here is the part most homeowners never hear, and it explains a lot.
Red imported fire ants come in two forms. Single-queen colonies are territorial. They fight neighboring colonies, which spaces the mounds out and keeps density under about 300 mounds per acre.
Texas commonly has the other form: multiple-queen colonies, which can hold up to 100 queens in one mound. Those workers are not territorial. They move freely between mounds and spread by budding. A few queens and workers simply start a new mound next door. Land infested with the multiple-queen form can carry 200 to 800 or more colonies per acre.
That is why a Parker County yard can go from a few mounds to dozens in one season. If your yard keeps filling back in no matter how many mounds you kill, this is almost always the reason. You cannot solve a multiple-queen infestation by treating mounds one at a time.
We walk the property first. We map visible mounds and look for satellite colonies along fences, patios, and irrigation boxes. We also note what is feeding the problem: soil moisture, mulch piles, and landscape features. We also confirm the species, since the treatment changes if you have another ant.
We broadcast a fire ant bait over the whole treatment area, not just the mounds. Baits are made of insecticide on corn grit coated in soybean oil. Foraging workers carry it home and feed it to the queen, who dies or stops reproducing. The colony collapses from the inside.
Broadcasting is what handles the colonies you never spotted. Timing matters. We apply when the ground is dry, when workers are foraging, and when no rain is due for a day or two.
Baits work through the colony, not overnight. So we follow up with a direct mound treatment where it counts. That means play sets, patios, gates, and walkways. A liquid drench can clear an active mound within hours.
We schedule follow-up inspections and advise on lawn practices that reduce risk, like irrigation adjustments. Then we set a seasonal schedule so colonies do not rebuild. Fire ants re-invade from neighboring land, so ongoing coverage is what keeps a yard clear.
Most store-bought products kill workers. Workers are not the problem. A mature colony holds hundreds of thousands of them, and the queen replaces them faster than a spray can kill them. Unless the treatment reaches the queen, the mound rebuilds.
Worse, poking a mound with the wrong product often makes the colony pick up and move a few feet away. Now you have a fresh mound and no idea where the queen went.
Two things a professional brings that a hardware store cannot:
For the record, boiling water does work on a mound about 60 percent of the time. It also kills your grass and rarely reaches the queen.
Fire ants thrive in our local
Fire ant pricing depends on the size of the treated area, not the size of your house. A quarter-acre suburban lot and a five-acre spread are different jobs.
Your quote depends on:
We quote after a free on-site evaluation, so you get a real number instead of a guess. Ask about bundling fire ant control with your regular service. That is usually cheaper than treating it as a one-off.
Fire ants re-invade from a neighbor’s yard. So honest fire ant control means keeping pressure on, not promising a one-time miracle. That is why our work comes with follow-up built in.
If fire ants come back between scheduled visits on a covered plan, we come back and re-treat at no extra charge. We will tell you upfront how long your treatment is expected to hold and when the next application is due. No surprise bills, no vague promises. Ask us for the current terms during your free evaluation.
Fire ants do not take the year off, and their behavior shifts with the seasons. Baits work best when workers are actively foraging, which happens when temperatures sit between roughly 70 and 85 degrees. That makes spring and fall the two best windows.
We time treatments to these cycles instead of just showing up. That is the difference between product applied and product that works.
Your yard should be usable. Fire ants put kids, pets, and guests at risk every time someone walks across the grass.
Our residential pest control covers homeowners in neighborhoods like Silverstone, Crown Valley, and the communities near Weatherford College. Fire ants share a lawn with other turf pests. Seeing dead patches as well as mounds? Ask about grub worm treatment at the same visit.
Businesses across Parker and Tarrant Counties lose more than landscaping to fire ants. Mounds damage turf, stings affect employees and customers, and liability follows.
Broadcast treatment is built for large areas, which makes acreage and common grounds a good fit for this method. Our commercial pest control team handles scheduling around your operating hours and your groundskeeping crew.
Fire ants bite first to grip your skin, then sting to inject venom. That is why stings often come in a circle or a cluster.
If you are standing in them, brush them off fast. Per Texas A&M, if ants are removed while biting but before they sting, no venom goes in and no pustule forms. Speed genuinely helps.
For an ordinary sting, wash the area with soap and cool water and use a cold compress for the swelling. A white pustule usually forms within a day or two. Leave it alone. Those blisters are sterile, but scratching them open invites infection, which is the most common complication.
Some reactions are emergencies. Get help right away for trouble breathing, chest pain, nausea, heavy sweating, serious swelling, slurred speech, dizziness, or hives away from the sting site. Those are signs of a systemic reaction. Fire ants are the most common cause of stinging insect allergy in Texas. Anyone who has reacted badly before should see an allergist.
Pets get stung too, usually on the paws and muzzle. Watch for swelling, limping, or repeated pawing at the face, and call your vet if the reaction looks serious.
Professional treatment is what eliminates colonies, but good habits lower your risk between visits:
We treat fire ants across Weatherford (76086, 76087) and Lake Worth (76135). We also cover Parker County towns like Aledo, Hudson Oaks, Willow Park, Springtown, and Azle. We also serve Granbury and Fort Worth. Not sure if we reach you? Check our pest control service area or call and ask.
It depends on the method, and any company promising instant results on a whole yard is overselling. A direct liquid mound drench can clear that mound within hours. Broadcast baits need weeks to a few months to reach 80 to 90 percent control. The bait has to travel through the workers to the queen. Professional granular products generally take four to six weeks to hit full effect and then hold for most of a season. Slower is not worse here. Bait is what actually reaches the queen.
Yes. We use products labeled for residential use and apply them at label rates. We will explain every precaution, including how long to stay off treated turf before re-entry.
No, and be skeptical of anyone who says otherwise. Mated queens fly miles to start new colonies, and ants re-invade from neighboring property. Seasonal treatment is what keeps a yard clear long term.
Yes. We routinely handle ranch-style lots, lakefront homes, pastures, and commercial acreage around Weatherford and Lake Worth. Broadcast application is well suited to large areas.
Rain soon after a bait application can wash the bait away before ants collect it. Heavy rain also triggers fresh mound building. Tell us if that happens and we will assess whether a re-application is needed.
You most likely have the multiple-queen form of fire ant. Those colonies bud off new mounds nearby instead of defending territory, so killing individual mounds just relocates the problem. Broadcast baiting across the whole area is the fix.
Both. Fire ants need a lawn-wide approach, while ants that get inside your kitchen need a different treatment. We identify the species first, then treat accordingly. See our pest control FAQs for more.
Do not wait for the mounds to take over. Maybe you are a homeowner tired of stings in your own yard. Maybe you manage a property and need to protect customers. Either way, we can help.
Contact Pinnacle Pest Protection today for your free fire ant evaluation. We will walk the property, show you what we find, and give you a clear plan and a firm price.
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