Fire ant (Fallout 3)

The Fire Ants are a variation of Giant Ants that is even more mutated than the "regular" giant bugs. Their name comes from their ability to literally breathe fire, similarly to the Fire Geckos from the Core Region.

The fire ants were created by Doctor Lesko, a Capital Wasteland scientist, and can only be found in that area. He was attempting to return giant ants to their normal size through genetic manipulation and accidentally created the fire ants.

Dr. Lesko's Ambition was to make the ants exponentially smaller through generations, ie. the offspring is born smaller than parent. But as he reasons, one small tweak of an error has left the ants with a completely different mutation.

Variants (Ranks)

 * Worker
 * Soldier
 * Warrior

Only found in Queen Ant's Hatchery:
 * Five Nest Guardian 
 * And a single Queen

Fire Ants are only found in Grayditch, Marigold Station and Queen Ant's Hatchery.

Background of Fire Ants
Fire Ants are a growing species, but still small as they come from one source: The Queen Fire Ant, which can be killed in a variety of ways. The queen was created by Doctor Lesko, as well as the rest of the ants. Although the Fire Ants have good survival skills and can wander around the wastes safely they are found around one specific area called Grayditch, a small town that has been completely taken over by Fire Ants. If you follow the trail of these Fire Ants, you will find a cave in which is Doctor Lesko, along with the Queen Fire Ant, not to mention dozens of Fire Ant Warriors and Soldiers protecting the queen. If the Queen Fire Ant is destroyed, several Fire Ants will still be alive but they will no longer be able to reproduce, and will soon after die out.

Tactics
Due to the their fire breath (which has surprisingly long range) it is best to handle them in mid to long range. Melee/Unarmed combat can seriously harm your character, but if done properly can be surprisingly effective. The ants seem to have a minimum range at which they could breathe fire at you. If you get extremely close to the ants, they will be constantly forced to move backwards, letting off a spurt of flame or two. Alternately, at close ranges, you can also attempt to outflank them. As they have a slow turn speed, this is easy to do. In fact, the Dogmeat companion is effective at holding up Fire Ants, so that you may out-flank them or keep your distance.

Antennae
If you target their antennae in VATS and cripple the antennae, they will become Frenzied. Once a fire ant becomes frenzied it will attack other nearby fire ants. If done correctly, you can use a single Soldier or Warrior Fire Ant to destroy 2 or 3 worker fire ants. Once attacked by another ant, the attackee will return fire, damaging the attacking ant. This tactic can be extremely useful when under attack by 2 or more fire ants. It may take 2-3 hits to work a fire ant into a frenzy. Soldier or Warrior fire ants are a better choice to work into a frenzy, as they have more HP, making them more likely to survive having their antennae shot up, and more likely to kill other ants before dying themselves. Frag mines also have a tendency to cripple antennae, effective on both the surface ants and the Nest Guardian ants. In the train station, plant frag mines next to the generators in the crevices and draw an ant down the corridor. This can do more damage than a normal frag mine, but probably will not kill the ant outright. They are tough to kill with explosives (they can survive 2 frags and 7 hunting rifle shots to the head), although frag mines work better than frag grenades. They can be very difficult for low-level players.

Legs
It is helpful to cripple a fire ant's legs and then continue backing away. Once it is crippled, it is easy to take single, non-zoomed-in shots at the ant's head as it limps towards you.

Related quests

 * Those!
 * Nectar Collecting for Fun and Profit