Every year I have to actively discourage the fire ants from establishing their nest at our back door. The fire ants are always present, but two or three times a year they try to set up their home in ours. Rather than use commercial insecticides, baking soda and boiling hot water work great. If that doesn’t do the trick, bleach diluted in a spray bottle and pure tenacity do the trick. It may take days, going out every hour — each time a layer of ants comes to the surface I bombard them with one of the two solutions. They are not easily discouraged, but finally, living in our house is no longer an option for them…until next time.