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Bill's on fire ants and killing the queen

>        I have had some success with big pots of boiling water. The queens live
>deep in normally waterproof chambers but the hot water melts the walls
>and kills her.

Fire ants are relatively easy to kill, but unless the queen is destroyed,
certain of her attendants bury her deep in the earth or whisk her away to
start a new hive when she's threatened.  My employer, USDA's Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service, has been doing fire-ant research for
decades now, and the silver bullet has not been found.  This is the first
I've heard about the melting scenario.  The most successful toxicants are
impregnated into baits, which the ants nibble on and carry back to the
colony, where more ants can be exposed and die.

Cornmeal is said to kill them by ingestion and explosion when the meal hits
the damp gut of the insect.

About 5 years ago, while I was doing a book with our big fire ant guy Homer
Collins (Gulfport, MS), he told me of a then-new phenomenon that had him
plenty worried.  Fire ant colonies began having *two* queens instead of just
one.  Life insurance for the entomological sector.  Bad news for the Mammalia.

Fire ants have migrated northward and are now often found in the
Norfolk/Virginia Beach area.  A few colonies have been spotted in Maryland,
but the winters are too cold for them to get established (so far, knock on
wood).

--Janet
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Janet Wintermute             jwintermute@ids2.idsonline.com

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