Looking out my front door I count at least 12 red hills rising from the ground. Inside each one is a small army determined to take over our patch of earth on Mt. Zion Road.

The hills dot our property like enemy encampments, daring me to venture into hostile territory.

Following the recent heavy rains, fire ants moved into our yard in alarming numbers. We’ve been bitten and terrorized by the little devils. Our 2-year-old screams “Ants!” and cries every time she sees a patch of dirt in the yard, whether it’s an ant bed or not.

I’ve fought bravely, but the enemy’s numbers are too great. I’ve tried powders, granules, sprays and prayer. So far, nothing has worked. I’ve managed to kill thousands of them, but they keep sending reinforcements to the front line. Once one bed is killed off and dormant, another pops up a few feet away. Short of soaking all five acres in pesticide, I’m not sure there’s hope of eradicating them.

The enemy is a foreign one — fire ants are not native to Mississippi. “They first entered the country around 1918 near Mobile, Alabama, and made their way into southern Mississippi by the 1930s. They have since spread to every corner of every county in the state and through most of the southeastern United States,” according to MSUcares.com. We can blame Alabama for the invasion. It allowed the enemy on its shores and didn’t stop its spread.

According to MSU, more than 200 mounds can pop up on each acre if they’re not controlled. Thankfully, we don’t have that many — at least not yet. But we have enough to strike fear in any pest control company. We’ve not yet turned to a professional for help, but we are nearing that point.

My children, of course, love to torment the tiny terrors. They kick the beds just to watch the ants boil out like deep-red lava oozing from a tiny volcano. That, in turn, leads to more bites. Which, in turn, leads to more powders, granules and sprays. And more frustration.

This is not my first encounter with the enemy. At our property back in Newton County, I managed to reduce their numbers significantly — to the point we could frolic in the grass without worry. But apparently, the ants of Lincoln County have not heard of my previous victories. Or if they have, they have decided their numbers are great enough to defeat me. And they may be right.

The fire ant is an interesting beast. Unlike bees, ants have no way of storing food in their mounds. Instead, they store food in their bodies — especially in the bodies of larger ants. And though we often see ants carrying other insects or food back to the colony, they have no way of digesting solid food. Worker ants bring the food to the larvae, which digest the food into a liquid that is distributed to all members of the colony.

During wet weather, ants build tall mounds to keep the little ones warm and dry. During dry weather, they tend to stay deeper below ground. This is why so many ant mounds have popped up recently. The ants are trying to protect future generations of tiny devils.

But this won’t happen on my watch, not on my land. I will continue to fight, and if nothing else, I’ll keep the garden center in business by stocking up on ant poison.

Luke Horton is the publisher of The Daily Leader.