Which two sentences from the passage support the prediction that the fire ant population could be destroyed by eliminating the queen fire
ants?
The Amazing Fire Ant
Fire ants are not ordinary ants. These small, reddish brown ants are 1/8-1/4 of an inch long about the size of a grain of rice. Fire ants can be
found in the southern United States in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. Although they are small, they will bite
people, animals, and plants.
ants got their name because of the burning sensation that their painful bites create. Fire ants can bite repeatedly because they can pivot
their heads. These six-legged insects will keep stinging their victims until they are removed. Ant bites develop into small blister-like sores that are
called pustules. Some people have physical reactions to the bites such as nausea, vomiting, or chest pains.
Fire ants live in mounds which house both queens who lay the eggs and worker ants. One queen has the ability to produce 3.500 eggs in one
day and may live for seven years or more. The ant eggs hatch and mature to adulthood in a month. Worker ants live only four to six weeks,
which means they have shorter life spans than the queens. Worker ants help the queen ants. They use their antennae to find food. Worker ants
bring food in the form of dead insects into the mounds.
e ants create mounds that are extensive tunnels that can reach as deep as 25 feet. The tunnels provide air movement, especially in hard
clay soils. Because mounds may have several queens, the population of one mound may be as many as 300,000-400,000 ants. One mound may
spread over as much as an acre of land. For this reason, it is almost impossible to control the spread of fire ant mounds.
