Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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Ant-agonism
July 31, 2008 1:04 PM
If you've spent any time in the rural South, you've perhaps seen colonies of fire ants -- and the hatred that people have for them.
Now a couple of entomologists have traced the genes of the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta), and concluded that all of them -- every single one -- can be traced to fewer than 20 queen ants. They probably arrived on one ship that docked in Mobile, Ala., in the 1930s. It only took one. There's more HERE from the Agricultural Research Service of the Department of Agriculture.
The research was done by DeWayne Shoemaker of the ARS, and Kenneth G. Ross of the University of Georgia. They've published their results in Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences.
Why does it matter to know where they came from? Because many farmers would dearly love some way to get rid of them. Something better than spraying them, or picking them, painfully, off one's skin.
Hat tip to Brian Hartman in our Washington bureau for finding this.
July 31, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (12)
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So they know where and when they arrived. Nice to know but not very helpful in getting rid of them. Where did they originate and what keeps them in check at their point of origin?
Posted by: Quietman | Jul 31, 2008 8:37:17 PM
Or are they even kept in check? Got to be careful.Only 20 queens huh?I am 44 and can always remember them.We have always used a garden hose to get them off-blast em!
Posted by: Symphony of Destruction | Jul 31, 2008 10:48:09 PM
It could be environmentally disastrous to bring whatever critter keeps them in check in they're country of origin here to the US to keep them in check. The ants are already harming the environment where they're found anyway. Adding another invasive species could harm it even furthur. Like it or not, they're here to stay. There is no way to destroy each and every colony without destroying native ants and other native wildlife.
Just do what everyone else does, spray them with pesticides. I used a big pole, would beat the nest down as far as it would go, had one that went down pretty deep once, over a foot, then spray all the ticked off ants with bug spray. Kills the colony. Although, in Alabama, I had at any given time 5 to 10 colonies in my yard. So this was part of my weekly yard work. Never got bit though.
Posted by: Lawrence | Aug 1, 2008 8:31:34 AM
Lawrence,I hate to tell you this, but the queen is usually 5-6 feet below the surface and as long as she lives you will have fire ants! Some of the presently available poisons are only palatable to the fire ant and they carry it into the nest to feed the queen.
Only problem is that they are very adaptive and quickly become immune so the poison only works for one season!
Posted by: Irnotu | Aug 1, 2008 8:44:06 AM
They're not just in the south anymore. I was bitten by a bunch of them in Michigan a few summers ago when I was picking blackberries.
Posted by: cturple | Aug 1, 2008 9:23:26 AM
Irnotu, I didn't know the queen's lived that deep. I did however, use quite alot of pesticides on each colony. Never did I have a colony come back in the same location. But that doesn't rule out a move. It was a constant battle. That is neat. 5 feet huh?
Posted by: Lawrence | Aug 1, 2008 8:27:48 PM
Lawrence
Re: "It could be environmentally disastrous to bring whatever critter keeps them in check in they're country of origin here to the US to keep them in check."
True, but very hard to determine if you don't know what it is to start with. Some insects have worked, ie. red wasps and preying mantis. Thats why they are protected species.
Posted by: Quietman | Aug 2, 2008 1:06:00 PM
I've heard that spreading instant oatmeal around a nest can help with them. They eat the oatmeal and it expands and makes them explode. Any thoughts on this? I don't know myself. I live in southern Mn, so we don't have them here.
Jason
Posted by: Jason | Aug 2, 2008 3:18:34 PM
How about that tiny snake they just discovered that eats ant larvae?
Posted by: Quietman | Aug 3, 2008 2:57:10 PM
I don't know if this is the same red ant that is very common in the tropics. They build big nests by weaving the leaves of trees together. When I was a kid, I used to burn the nests before I could gather mangoes and oranges.
In northern Thailand, local people gather white stuff (egg? larvae?. I don't know) from their nests and sell them as delicacies. I heard they taste a bit spicy but delicious. Yuk!
Posted by: poggi11 | Aug 5, 2008 5:29:37 AM
Re: "It could be environmentally disastrous to bring whatever critter keeps them in check in they're country of origin here to the US to keep them in check."
No need to worry about the "critters that keep them in check"; you got them there already! Here in Africa we do just one thing that keeps anything in check... or even endangered: eat them just as much as they bite us!
Posted by: HJK | Aug 5, 2008 10:49:59 AM
Rural South? I live in the Dallas area and we have fire ants all over the place. Does the author of this article think that all of the South is rural?
Posted by: Jeff | Aug 6, 2008 11:31:28 AM
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