For an overview of fire ant variants in the Fallout series of games, see fire ant. For an overview of giant ant variants in the Fallout series of games, see giant ant.
It is not known how exactly fire ants came to be in the Mojave Wasteland. It is possible that their ability to breathe fire was been developed in a way similar to the fire gecko's ability.
Fire ants are large insects, covered in a reddish-brown carapace. They have large mandibles used for defending themselves as well as hunting. They also have the unusual ability to breathe fire.
These insects can be a bit of a problem in early parts of the game, especially for lower level characters. Hitting their antennae counts toward a critical hit and will also frenzy the ant. Fire ants use the same tactics as giant ants, swarming their foe. They are especially dangerous though, as they can also breathe fire. Fire and explosive based weapons are generally ineffective when dealing with them as they have a high fire resistance. They will sometimes ignore the player and only attack when provoked.
Fire ant workers are the smaller and weaker of the two fire ant variants, and are responsible for gathering food and taking care of the young of the colony.
xbox360pc Occasionally, they will make a sound that suggest they're spitting fire, but there is no fire present. [verified]
xbox360ps3 Sometimes the queen will appear in the tunnels leading to her, rather than the large open room. [verified]
pcps3xbox360 The death item list for the Ant Queen is meant to give ant queen pheromonesand a random number of ant eggs, but does not have the "Use All" flag checked; this results in the list instead giving out only one of the listed items, equating to an approximate 8% chance of receiving pheromones and less than a 20% chance of receiving any ant eggs. [verified]
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