Alabama was ground zero for the Red Imported Fire Ant invasion.

The plentiful, painful red ant is thought to have arrived from Brazil on a ship that landed in Mobile Bay in the late 1930s. It began a march that spread across the state and now blankets more than 350 million acres of the southern U.S. The Red Imported Fire Ant can now be found in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. They are also marching on a separate front up the coast of California, where they are thought to have arrived by truck from the Southeast. These red pests are now found in areas of Australia, New Zealand, many Caribbean islands, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and China, all by hitchhiking along international trade routes.