UT says Tennessee has an Imported Fire Ant Quarantine Rule, established in 1990, and publishes a 2024 county list. The black imported fire ant's range includes southern Tennessee.
University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture: “In Tennessee the Department of Agriculture, Division of Regulatory Services established the Imported Fire Ant Quarantine Rule in 1990.” Source
Official presence. 17 states where a state list or official source names it. Gray means no official record in our data, not that it is absent.
Native or listed
Nonnative or not established
No official record in our data
Observation records. Open-licence records on GBIF for the five US fire ants named on this page (Solenopsis invicta, S. richteri, S. geminata, S. xyloni and S. aurea) in 19 states. Records are sightings people shared, not confirmation that a population lives there.
Its colonies contain big workers with square heads that are large for their bodies; red imported fire ant workers do not have oversized heads (UF/IFAS). Hawaii's HISC says a microscope is required to tell the two apart.
About the same size and color as the red imported fire ant; its nests are irregular, scattered soil with several hidden entrances rather than a dome; less aggressive. Definite ID needs a microscope (2 clypeal teeth vs 3).
California harvester ant ("red ants")
Workers are all the same size (about 1/5 inch) and red; many people call these red ants. Fire ant workers vary in size within a colony.
Little fire ant
Much smaller (about 1/16 inch, all workers the same size), uniform yellow-red to light brown, and does NOT build mounded dirt nests; nests in trees, potted plants, irrigation lines and electrical boxes and often falls on people from above.
Quarantine | Fire Ants in Tennessee. University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. undated page; checked November 3, 2026.Quoted passages (1)
“In Tennessee the Department of Agriculture, Division of Regulatory Services established the Imported Fire Ant Quarantine Rule in 1990.”
Fire Ants in Tennessee. University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology. undated page; checked November 3, 2026.Quoted passages (1)
“The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, the black imported fire ant, Solenopsis richteri Forel, and their hybrid are nuisance insects and their stings can cause serious medical problems.”
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