Wow, that guy looks mean! 😲
Fire ants are movin' on up! But, not to the only to the "east side" as Mr. Jefferson, but rather, pushing north, north, north!
Much of southern Arkansas is currently infested, and fire ants have been found in the more northern sections of the state.
The greatest spread of these fire ants is a result of movement of grass Imported fire ant sod and woody ornamental plants used in landscaping. Humans also transported them out of Mobile across the southern United States. With an economic surge, Mobile became the nation’s fifth largest horticultural center. Finding their way into nursery stock, ants were shipped across the region, ending up in disrupted development sites. The brown or black ants spread north.
The red imported fire ant is native to central South America. It is also established in the U.S. and Australia (Queensland, near Brisbane - as of 2001) (Shattuck and Barnett 2005).
It has been reported in Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos Islands (ISSG 2006).
Range expansion! This map predicts areas in the United States that are susceptible to invasion by the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Predictions are based on climate and current northernmost distributions of red imported fire ants. To generate these predictions, a dynamic model of colony growth was developed which depended on daily maximum and minimum soil temperatures. Temperature records at 4,537 meteorological stations within the current and potential range of S. invicta were obtained from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. At each station, a colony was allowed to grow and reproduce. The map of reproducing colonies was then compared with the current fire ant distribution. After calibration to the current northernmost extremes in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Oklahoma, four zones of colony success were defined: certain, possible, un-demonstrated, and improbable.
Fire ants can both bite and sting multiple times, which is very painful and causes blisters that itch and burn. Severe allergic reactions to their venom are rare. The World Health Organization estimates that, of the 40 million people living in fire ant infested areas in the southeastern United States, 60 percent are stung annually. They don’t hibernate; in winter, they’re just less active. It takes very cold winters to wipe out colonies. Home remedies may kill a few ants but can cause personal injury and, in some cases, environmental harm.
Besides directly killing a fire ant mound, there are efforts underway to combat fire ants using parasites, pathogens, viruses, competitors and predators. Parasitic flies from the fire ant’s native range have been introduced intentionally to the United States so that they can reduce fire ant activity above ground, assisting native ants to better compete with fire ants. Armadillos and other predators eat fire ants.
According to the cooperative extension service, they aren’t all bad, and are actually fascinating creatures. A fire ant’s diet includes plants, small animals, birds, human foods, and parasites like ticks and chiggers, whose populations may be reduced in fields infested with fire ants. They’re quite awesome animals, forming an ant raft that can float for months to find dry ground. Colony size is usually above 200,000 ants. They prey on cotton and sugarcane pests, helping some farmers. Overall, though, fire ants are a nuisance that cost us about $750 million in damage to crops and machinery, livestock deaths, and other losses.
An annual precipitation limit was selected to indicate regions where arid conditions may prohibit growth in non-irrigated areas. Results of the model predict that red imported fire ants will likely move 50-100 miles north in Oklahoma and Arkansas. They will also likely continue expanding into portions of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware in the east and New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Nevada, and maybe even Washington and Utah in the west.
In the U.S., RIFA was first introduced from Brazil into either Mobile, Alabama, or Pensacola, Florida, between 1933 and 1945. However, the red imported fire ant infests Puerto Rico, and all or part of many southern and western states from Maryland to southern California (Mobley and Redding 2005).
As of August 2008, the following U.S. states have established infestations: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The infestations in Maryland and Virginia are sparse and still not formally recognized on USDA maps. Small, localized populations exist in the San Francisco Bay area (David Williams, personal communication, 18 August 2008).
