Is it just me, or does it seem like there are a lot more fire ants around than there used to be?

When I first move here 5 years ago I saw plenty of fire ant mounds, but anymore I can't seem to go five feet without running into a fucking huge ass fire ant mound.

I don't ever remember them being this bad.

Am I imagining things?

The few months this summer it was dry I saw almost no fire ants which was pretty extraordinary.  Now that it has rained some they have come back 10x worse than before.  I've been poisoning mounds almost daily around my house.  I think this recent surge has to do with the weather more than anything and hopefully is just temporary.

Definitely the weather. They've been around my shower twice in the last month.

Look for any pesticide with acephate as the active ingredient. I used the commercial version and it knocked the crap out of each mound with just one treatment.

Home depot has some stuff that you put in the grass that will keep them away and it is worth applying twice a year. I can tell between when I put it out and when I didn't. I don't know if you have to kill them out first tho.

This year has been pretty light on fire ants, at least in my yard.  I've only seen 2 mounds this year and each one popped up after we got some decent rain.

'Over and Out", twice a year, and Ortheen to kill the mounds. Both are really good products. The only problem with the Over and Out is that it keeps them away but doesn't seem to kill them off. It's kind of like weeds, If your neighbors aren't killing theres, you will get them back.

mgfan58

Some interesting info when you google fireant life cycle:

"The average fire ant colony contains 100,000 to 500,000 workers and up to several hundred winged ants.

The winged ants mate; the male will then die and the female will become the queen of the new colony, laying up to 800 eggs per day.

In areas with multiple queen colonies, there may be 400 or more mounds and as many as 80 million ants per hectare".

The rains have brought out my 400 mounds plus some more. I live on 100 acres and have grass runways for my toys. I fight those little bastards constantly. I wish some Aggie would figure out a way to send all them to hell instantly.

Over-n-out works great to keep them out of an area but it is kind of expensive if you are trying to keep them out of a large area and when it rains as much as it has lately the stuff washes away.

I'm of two minds about this.
I hate fire ants.



I hate ticks.



Fire ants kill (eat?) ticks.



Ticks suck, literally.  And are a vector for several different diseases, both human and animal.





I think i'd rather deal with fire ants than ticks.

While populations may indeed be up this year (I don't know one way or the other) I would say that a large part of this is perception.  During dry weather fire ant colonies are harder to see because they're entirely underground.  But when it rains they build a mound above ground to escape the flooded parts of the colony.  So now you can easily see them everwhere that they were to begin with.

They raise their mounds before a rain, so at my daughters school this week, there's dozens of mounds appearing. I stepped in one the other day unloading the kids. I'd go treat the mounds myself just to clean them up and make it safer for the kids to walk out there, but some weenie would try and sue me for something. School district doesn't do anything.

+1

This year has been a bad year for ticks too. Between the horses and the dogs,  I've pulled about a thousand ticks this summer.

RC or full scale.   I do both my self

Zombie Ants

Scott Ludwig isn't an aggie, but he works for the AgriLife Extension Service which is part of the A&M system. This guy is definitely a bug nerd.

It's only a matter of time before they start arming themselves with tiny AR-15s to combat the zombies among them.

You need to visit the TX A&M Fire Ant web site.

TX A&M Fire Ant Website

Also see this publication. (I fixed the link!!!) I am a co-author. (Click on "view PDF" button)

Fire Ant Control

Acephate and other quick acting insecticides i.e., permethrin, bifenthrin, cypermethrin, cyfluthrin, etc., when used as a single mound treatment do not kill all of the ants,  The ants escape through their foraging tunnel system that radiates from each of the mounds.  Many of our mounds in Texas have multiple queens and these queens are escorted out of the mound as soon as the ants detect problems.  You kill alot of ants with single mound treatments, but you tend to miss the queens.

I recommend the using broadcast applications of fire ant baits.  There are many out there.  The bait products target the queens and immatures, or your next generation of ants.  You need to attack the fire ant population not individual mounds.  You can only treat the mounds you see not the mounds you don't see.  All of the foraging ants have access to a broadcast bait product.,  They take the bait back into their respective mounds and the mounds die from within.  The ants are your delivery system.

Check out the web page, there is a lot of helpful information there.  If you click on the "information materials" link at the top of the page you can access all of our publications and information sheets on fire ant management and control.

More on the "Zombie Ant" ––

More Zombie Ant info!

I do not know the date on that Fire Ant Infestation map, but I have land in Oklahoma that is has been definitely infested by fire ants big time for more than 10 years and is well north of the "Future Infestation" area on the map.

Take a drive around southeast Carter County and you will see pastures with dozens of fire ant mounds some over a foot high.

On a large scale, too expensive to control and impossible to eradicate.

My neighbor (lived all his 80+ years around here) said the rattlesnakes were real bad - until the fire ants came, but now the rattlesnakes are not that bad. Yes, not many rattlesnakes around here now. The ants attack the eggs and young.

Lee

rattlers are still quite thick down in south tx

Here is the 2009 infestation map.



As you mentioned we will not eradicate the fire ant, but the population can be managed so you can enjoy the outdoors.

I have bottomed ATV's out on fire ant mounds 28" high and 36" in diameter southwest of the Houston, TX.

Solenopsis Invicta...I like the scientific name, for those evil nasty spawn of Satan...or are they God's punishment on Man for sin?   Either way, kill 'em all!

But what are the possible/probable problems with introduction of the Phorid Fly to the Southern US?  Has anyone tested that?

Read the articles posted above, also,

Phorid flies are found worldwide, though the greatest variety of species is to be found in the tropics. They are frequently found around flowers and moist decaying matter, although they can be found throughout the house. Several species have the common name of the coffin fly, because they breed in human corpses with such tenacity that they can even continue their life cycle within buried coffins. For this reason they are important in forensic entomology. More generally, the larvae breed in a numerous variety of locations, such as dung, fungi, decaying plant matter or drain pipes.  

There are over 20,000 species of phorid flies. Most phorid flies are scavengers and some utilize corpses and are useful in forensics (the so-called coffin flies). Phorids that show up in houses typically breed in the sludge in sink drains but could be coming up from animal remains under the house (e.g. dead rats). Phorids that parasitize ants are a highly specialized minority that do nothing except attack and consume ants. The vast majority of people will never knowingly see one of these inconspicuous creatures.

Most commonly they feed on decaying organic matter. Because they frequent unsanitary places they may transport various disease-causing organisms to food material.

Phorid flies develop from an egg, and via larval, and pupal stages before emerging as an adult. The female lays between 1 to 100 tiny eggs at a time in or on the larval food. She can lay up to 750 eggs in her lifetime. The time it takes from egg to adult varies on the species, but the average is about 25 days.

The larvae emerge in 24 hours and feed for a period of between 8 and 16 days, before crawling to a drier spot to pupate. The phorid fly's egg-to-adult life cycle can be as short as 14 days but may take up to 37 days

Many species of phorid fly are specialist parasitoids of ants, but there are also species in the tropics that are parasitoids of stingless bees. These affected bees are often host to more than one fly larva and some individuals have been found to contain 12 phorid larva.

Aside from a small amount of nectar-feeding by adults, Phorid flies that parasitize ants are completely dependent on ants. There are many species of the Phorid fly in the U.S., but since the fire ant is imported, we do not have the species that attacks the fire ant present in the U.S.  Most species of flies under consideration for release as biocontrol agents of the Fire Ant are restricted to a single species or species group of fire ants. For example, native phorid species attack our native fire ants, Solenopsis geminata and S. xyloni. The fact that in over seven decades, no switch by native phorids to the invading S. invicta has occurred is strong evidence of how extremely host-specific these flies are.

At this time 4 species of the Phorid fly has been released in Texas.

Heh...  I remember stepping on my first Fire Ant mound in Midland county.  Maybe 15 years ago or so?



I have family in East Texas, so i knew what the deal was.  I was thinking "well, it was gonna happen eventually."
Supposedly they came in potting soil packaged in East Texas.  At least, that was the rumor.

Fire Ants were transported in soil that was used as ballast on ships coming from Brazil back in the 1930's.  The fire ant is native to Brazil and Argentina.  

For what its worth, the fire ant is not a problem in Brazil or Argentina due to the presence of a complex of Phorid Fly Species.

When the ships docked in Mobile Alabama, the ballast which contained the fire ant (now the Imported Fire Ant) was off loaded onto the banks and the rest is history.  They were first documented as being in Harris County in the 1950's

How they got to Harris County is pure conjecture, though movement by soil, hay, potted plants, or machinery or a combination of these is probable.

Was referring to Midland county. The rumor was they were transported in packaged potting soil that was originally packaged in East Texas somewhere.



I have no idea if that is valid or not.





Did you mean to put Midland county in your last sentence?





The pic you posted with the lone two West Texas (Midland and Ector) counties being red caused me to remember it.

TinLeg,

I am sure you can say that for almost all counties that have the pest.  They readily hitch rides to wherever.

I see there are regulations for moving of hay, plants w/soil, whatever from quantined counties to non-quarantined counties.





What is the penalty for importing without a permit or inspector's certificate?





ETA another interesting link:



http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=9165&page=13

drfireant, thank you for the info on the Phorids.  If y'all want to release some phorids in my yard, it'd be fine with me!  I'm certainly in an infested county.  There are 4 mounds in my yard currently, despite Firestrike and Amdro Pro...

Yep, it's official, Paul is a bug nerd.

Back in the 80's, you could buy Amdro at a discount through a USDA program, is there anything out there like that now?

How soon can/will we see practical use of phorid flies? Will they be sold or just bred in massive facilities and released by the government?

Do you know Jesse Jimmerson? He's retired now but he was a fire ant specialist in Dallas a few years ago.

No government programs.  Too many fire ant bait products out there.  They all function well if used at the right time.  The government will not choose one over the other.

The Phorids are a USDA program and their release will be controlled by the USDA.  The flies are a long term program and are being released over time.

I do not know Jesse Jimmerson.  Most of my research/educational efforts on fire ant management are around the gulf coast area, Houston/Metro area, etc.

While I hate fireants, I hate desease carrying ticks worse. We had the worst drought on record down here southwest of San Antonio this year and my dog had the worst tick problem that I have ever seen. I put collars on him, shampoos, sprays and the drops. He still had ticks. I also consequently did not see any fireants during the drought. Well we finally got some rain and I immediately noticed some fireant mounds popping up in the back yard. I left them alone and I can already see a difference in the tick population. I will poision most of the mounds but will leave a couple to patrol for ticks. Fireants dessemate ticks and therefore we have a uneasy truce.