16 replies to this topic

[JesseTheAntKid]

I am sick and I am tired of the red imported fire ant's blaze across the country. The tale I am about to tell is just a measly story of just one of the many wonderous creatures mercilessly pursued and slaughtered by the red imported fire ant.

 

     A peaceful colony of Cyphomyrmex minutus was, over the course of the previous week, relentlessly chased into differing bricks of the line by a colony of red imported fire ants, supermassive in their spread across Westbrook. Today, I discovered something bad.

 

     The entire colony was gone, without a trace. At least, not their own trace. There were red imported fire ants, crawling frantically through the tunnels where the harmless fungus-farming ants used to be. What was once a thriving colony is now a remorseful reminder of the current blazen empire, rapidly expanding across the world and America. The only evident survivor was a queen, who is in my hands as I write. She looks dead, but her posture suggests otherwise. She moves her antennae and mandibles slightly, and reacts slightly to any stimuli. I fear she will be taken from me in the next five minutes.

 

     Such is the merciless attack of the red imported fire ant.

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

Agreed. I had a colony of tetra in my backyard and one day they disappeared. I saw many fire ants and i felt that they were the reason and further investigation showed that that was true. That colony was a 2-3 year old colony destroyed just by a small colony.

[JesseTheAntKid]

Update. She's dead. Died on the counter where I put her for rehab. What are the signs of an ant dying of Solenopsin?

[The_Gaming-gate]

Fire ants are indeed, out of control. Once, my yard had a mature Camponotus floridanus which had just finished having their first nuptial flight. I come back to check on them next weekend, and guess what I found:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...it was a newly established RIFA satellite right where the carpenter ant nest was. Since that first carpenter ant colony went, I never found another mature carpenter ant colony again! I found even more RIFA nests where carpenter ants usued to live. I used to find Lasius neoniger colonies all the time, bustling with alates. Then fire ants would find the field, next week, no more neoniger. The only colonies left area ants I believe are Lasius interjectus which fire ants don't seem to care about, even though I think they steal brood from their nests sometimes. I haven't seen anymore twig ants, harvester ants which my friend was so excited to show me were replaced with invicta the moment I arrived. I can't even tell you the last time I saw a geminata colony, because they are all either hybrids or were already sieged by RIFA. I have only seen one Camponotus ant in Florida which was actually black, because the rest of those species were wiped out by your favorite INVICTA. it's always invicta- 

Edited by The_Gaming-gate, February 22 2024 - 4:24 PM.

[JesseTheAntKid]

Fire ants are indeed, out of control. Once, my yard had a mature Camponotus floridanus which had just finished having their first nuptial flight. I come back to check on them next weekend, and guess what I found:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...it was a newly established RIFA satellite right where the carpenter ant nest was. Since that first carpenter ant colony went, I never found another mature carpenter ant colony again! I found even more RIFA nests where carpenter ants usued to live. I used to find Lasius neoniger colonies all the time, bustling with alates. Then fire ants would find the field, next week, no more neoniger. The only colonies left area ants I believe are Lasius interjectus which fire ants don't seem to care about, even though I think they steal brood from their nests sometimes. I haven't seen anymore twig ants, harvester ants which my friend was so excited to show me were replaced with invicta the moment I arrived. I can't even tell you the last time I saw a geminata colony, because they are all either hybrids or were already sieged by RIFA. I have only seen one Camponotus ant in Florida which was actually black, because the rest of those species were wiped out by your favorite INVICTA. it's always invicta- 

That is insane. I actually have a similar story, still at Westbrook.

Huge Pheidole bicarinata population. Like, astoundingly huge, couldn't turn over a brick without finding them. Two days later after the fire ants find the tunnels, BAM, no more Pheidole bicarinata. Only invicta.

[ANTdrew]

There’s no getting that genie back in the bottle.

[JesseTheAntKid]

There’s no getting that genie back in the bottle.

We can, but the government (everyone's FAVORITE) loves to do absolutely nothing about it.

[bmb1bee]

We can, but the government (everyone's FAVORITE) loves to do absolutely nothing about it.

Ironically, there were efforts decades ago to putting a cap on the RIFA invasion. Absolutely nothing happened, despite the huge amounts of pesticides being used to wipe them out. In fact, they spread even faster due to their hardiness against it and the fact that natives didn't fare well with the pesticides. Only thing we can do now is organize a movement for everyone to pour boiling water into every single RIFA mound they see, since that seems to be the only thing capable in killing an entire colony relatively quickly. People have made cash killing those before, mainly through selling aluminum castings of their nests.

[michiganantsinmyyard]

Although they are truly damaging, I can't help but admire how adaptable and powerful they are. To go from a fairly generic non cryptic solenopsis species that has adapted to the Amazon rivers constant flooding to a powerhouse invasive menace capable of wiping whole species from an area really is a testament to how competitive the jungle is.

[AsdinAnts]

The USA did try to eradicate fire ants, and they are still trying. The fact of the matter is that it’s costing them billions of dollars to kill these little pests. Luckily, where I live, I have not seen any RIFA near me at all. I have only seen one S. invicta queen, and that was the queen I was trying to identify with all of you on my “Solenopsis Xyloni/Geminata/Invicta?” (thank you all for the help!) The menace that we do have in my area is argentine ants. They decimated everything like the fire ants florida has.

[gcsnelling]

Simple fact of the matter is they are here to stay.

[Mushu]

There's efforts by the government but they are built to survive and thrive, as are argentine ants.  In South America their populations are lower and the thought is there's no enough natural enemies of the fire ants in non native lands.

 

They've released phorid flies(primarily only attack fireants) and have looked into others, however it's very tricky as we all know introducing anything non native.

Edited by Mushu, February 23 2024 - 5:15 AM.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

I been around for almost a year now. i think i'll post my real self here on this topic as we've kind of pressed my buttons.

A short simple version, my views are actually nuanced with tons of if/then, taking far too long to write up here.
 

 

 

"There were red imported fire ants,"

 

 

That's not an honest statement for the word you use there, and i'd say if you think about word choice carefully, you know it.

"Imported" would suggest into the mind of any typical reader, a human willful decision to do so.

You know, like importing cane toads to Australia.

 

That was a wilful human effort to import an animal to a foreign land.

And is now of course famously regretted.

And honestly, nothing can be done about it now, that's just a part of the environment there these days. It is beyond the scope of us to meaningful alter it, without significant risk of doing more of the exact same sort of human error damage.

Damage that bothers us mind you, not that we did anything wrong from the cane toads' POV, they are doing great.

 

 

 

But that is not the history of why Solenopsis has such a world wide wide range as it has today.

 

From the POV of ants, and other "hitch hiker" animals we move around the globe.

We are just a force of nature. Those ants can wind up anywhere on earth from other intrinsic properties of earth besides us, like hurricanes.

 

All life on earth will live and thrive, anywhere it can.

 

Think about how we describe life.
Sometimes we say it is highly successful.
Watch any nature shows, we commonly measure that success by, how far and wide they can be found around the globe.

Interesting how some creatures that are everywhere, get praised by us for their success at living. While other creature doing nothing less or any different, are given a bad term and described as if they were willfully mean and evil somehow. Like when we "think" about this from that word's POV, we get to shift the blame for what we don't like form us to them. They were the invasive one here, must be their fault.

 

If spreading out to all places on earth is the measure of life's success, then it is.
If spreading out to places you were not already known to be is bad, then it is.

Fooking pick one already, it is some bs to say, doing it before we saw you do it was ok and we'll say you are a success when we find you everywhere on earth. But doing this spread out thing after we came along is not cool anymore, and we'll label you like you're out of line.

 

 

 

ok thanks, got that off my chest.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, February 23 2024 - 10:41 AM.

[The_Gaming-gate]

I remember this thread, and I am now reviving it since a dozen invicta males just swarmed my house. We have to start killing off these alates now, before they become species-killers later. In places where Dorymyrmex bureni live, we have to start spreading those alates around, since they are a natural enemy of fire ants. There is really no point in trying to kill off all of the established invicta colonies, it’s pointless and won’t work. What we actually need to start doing is preventing the queens from founding and making sure that there are no spaces that are suitable for them to found, whether surrounded by natives, or some other threat. We can not let those founding queens live. In some places like the southwest desert landscaping would probably push back the invicta, but here in Florida where our natural landscape is the literal best case scenario for fire ants, that probably won’t do too much.


We can’t let queens found, and we can’t let the young colonies grow. If we do that they will keep spreading and keep killing natives and keep costing us billions of dollars for agricultural losses. When you find a trail going across a smooth surface, smother it in vinegar. Fire ants have found a food source? Kick it and move it and make sure the fire ants can’t get it. But under no circumstance can these invicta spread, if we want to actually keep our native species alive and findable.

Edited by The_Gaming-gate, April 8 2024 - 4:41 AM.

[bmb1bee]

I remember this thread, and I am now reviving it since a dozen invicta males just swarmed my house. We have to start killing off these alates now, before they become species-killers later. In places where Dorymyrmex bureni live, we have to start spreading those alates around, since they are a natural enemy of fire ants. There is really no point in trying to kill off all of the established invicta colonies, it’s pointless and won’t work. What we actually need to start doing is preventing the queens from founding and making sure that there are no spaces that are suitable for them to found, whether surrounded by natives, or some other threat. We can not let those founding queens live. In some places like the southwest desert landscaping would probably push back the invicta, but here in Florida where our natural landscape is the literal best case scenario for fire ants, that probably won’t do too much.


We can’t let queens found, and we can’t let the young colonies grow. If we do that they will keep spreading and keep killing natives and keep costing us billions of dollars for agricultural losses. When you find a trail going across a smooth surface, smother it in vinegar. Fire ants have found a food source? Kick it and move it and make sure the fire ants can’t get it. But under no circumstance can these invicta spread, if we want to actually keep our native species alive and findable.

Queens can be collected easily enough and reused as feeders or something for a colony you have, or even a wild colony. Mature colonies can still be dealt with if found, with aluminum castings and boiling water as I mentioned. Even though it might not reach the queen of the colony, it would hinder them heavily and has a high possibility of killing the colony.

 

Unfortunately, pouring vinegar on workers won't really do anything. Dropping bait traps right in front of their nests could work though.

[The_Gaming-gate]

I remember this thread, and I am now reviving it since a dozen invicta males just swarmed my house. We have to start killing off these alates now, before they become species-killers later. In places where Dorymyrmex bureni live, we have to start spreading those alates around, since they are a natural enemy of fire ants. There is really no point in trying to kill off all of the established invicta colonies, it’s pointless and won’t work. What we actually need to start doing is preventing the queens from founding and making sure that there are no spaces that are suitable for them to found, whether surrounded by natives, or some other threat. We can not let those founding queens live. In some places like the southwest desert landscaping would probably push back the invicta, but here in Florida where our natural landscape is the literal best case scenario for fire ants, that probably won’t do too much.


We can’t let queens found, and we can’t let the young colonies grow. If we do that they will keep spreading and keep killing natives and keep costing us billions of dollars for agricultural losses. When you find a trail going across a smooth surface, smother it in vinegar. Fire ants have found a food source? Kick it and move it and make sure the fire ants can’t get it. But under no circumstance can these invicta spread, if we want to actually keep our native species alive and findable.

Queens can be collected easily enough and reused as feeders or something for a colony you have, or even a wild colony. Mature colonies can still be dealt with if found, with aluminum castings and boiling water as I mentioned. Even though it might not reach the queen of the colony, it would hinder them heavily and has a high possibility of killing the colony.

Unfortunately, pouring vinegar on workers won't really do anything. Dropping bait traps right in front of their nests could work though.

I don’t mean dropping vinegar on workers, that wouldn’t do much of anything. I mean dropping vinegar on foraging trails to mess up their pheromones to slow down the spread of the colony.


I suppose you could cast aluminum into the nests, but that would be quite a lot of aluminum for all of the nests you have to destroy, especially with the polygynous/polydomous colonies. It would do some damage, though. To be fair, it would take a pretty long time to kill alates, unless we start dropping diatomaceous earth all other their nests during nuptial flight season.

[GOCAMPONOTUS]

I found a huge colony of these yesterday and I put molten aluminum and that nest was about 3ft in dept and in a 15ft radius there were not other ant colonies. I bet these fire ants wiped out all other natives in the area.