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Fire Ants (OT?)

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

I just can't help myself. Maybe those in other parts of the country won't
find it of much interest, but I am SO excited about what I learned in
Master Gardener's class today about fire ants that I have to share a little
about those near universally hated creatures. 

We have them (do we live in Georiga?), and last summer I stumbled into my
first mound and learned first hand why people fear and loathe them. I got a
number of blisters which itched like crazy and lasted for weeks. Once is
enough to make you very cautious about doing that ever again.

Even so, I couldn't bring myself to want to try to eradicate them -- I'm an
organic gardener, for one thing, and I'm just philosophically opposed to
chemicals and killing for another. (Though I'll definitely make an
exception for poisonous snakes near the house.) I guess a recent thread on
another list made me sort of feel I SHOULD be trying to figure out some way
to dispense with them. Perhaps that's why I was so excited about learning
about them -- it took the pressure off.

First of all, their preferred food is other insects! That makes them
something of a beneficial. They will even eat other of their own kind,
especially since they're territorial. If other fire ants try to build a
mound too close, they'll get eradicated. They do NOT feed on vegetable
matter, which is a relief to me since I thought they might be attacking my
grapes from the mound built too near one of them. 

The reason they like to build near tree stumps, grapes, in a wooden tub
we've got and in last year's tomato bed is that they don't like being
disturbed (BOY do they hate being disturbed!). So, the lawn mower and the
neighbor's tractor mowing his field all drive them next to structures where
there isn't such traffic.

Too cool -- at the rate of 20 - 60 mounds per acre [large spread there],
they become a stable population -- no more mounds will get built. I think
this is really neat information because in a sense they control themselves.
Again, takes the pressure off.

According to our presenter today (a PhD entymologist in the Extension
service), they are easy to kill. But usually you don't actually get rid of
the entire mound but rather just move it. You'd have to try to kill each
and every mound simultaneously to get rid of them, and must repeat that
each and every year. Amdro is a stomach poison and acts fairly quickly (tho
by no means instantly). But there's new chemistry out there by several
names (I think Ambush is one -- I can check if anyone wants that info)
which causes the queen to produce all sterile females, and this approach
takes a few months to get rid of them.

Now that I know all this, I have no problem with leaving them completely
alone in peaceful coexistence. They're eating other insects and leaving my
vegetation alone and there are no children in the family who could run
afoul of them. They make nice big mounds to clearly mark their space so
it's fairly easy to just let them have their space in peace.

Hooray! 

Patricia
Zone 7b, on a newly established Fire Ant Refuge <g>

P.S. Oh, another fascinating thing. They send out an alarm pherome so they
all sting at once. OUCH!!


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