Also correct me if im wrong but arnt the fonv fire ants a fair bit larger and nastier then the fo3 ones were? Not to mention faster moving.
Your wrong, I remember entering Grayditch at low levels those Fire Ants hurt like *&)*&$@ the ones in NV feel much weaker even though they to an be easily encountered at low level.
What about the fire ants at Nellis they said something about them eating some of their munitions gunpowder,they look and act just like regular fire ants but if you shot them with an energy weapon they blow up.
They don't breath fire just explode because there filled with gunpowder.
Maybe just like the move Them! Giant flying fire ants left the Core region and over 200 years made it to DC. The Doc just thought he was responsible.
Don't theorize if you didn't do the quest in Fallout 3.
He injected the eggs of a regular giants to try and make them smaller, instead fire ants emerged. The queen was a regular giant ant queen. Lesko was responsible and no one who played the quest could say otherwise.
I want to perfectly clear most mutations are not FEV mutations in anyway shape or form. So stop blaming them for anything thats not explicit about its origins.