I am sorry to hear that your primary experiences with ants are fire ants (presumably Solenopsis invicta), but I assure you that they are just one of over 13,000 known species of ants!

I will never fall to the dark side of Hymenoptera!

I can’t believe that my ant question made the list, but I am very happy to have contributed some positivity to 2016 - and thanks Emma for the response!