12 replies to this topic

[KalenH]

I live in the center of the solenopsis invictus plague. Nearly all homes have a bag of ant poison in the garage. Both my father and grandfather have been poisoning invictus beds for the entirety of my life.

 

I'm now interested in ants, excluding invictus. I've been disappointed in my inability to find non-invictus around my home and around my work. I know that my family will be poisoning invictus beds in the future but i would think that the poison is more of a nuclear strike with fallout that would harm non-invictus ants. What is the known efficient way to target individual invictus colonies while keeping the area inhabitable by other species?

 

If so I may take to addressing the invictus colonies before my family nukes their yards. 

 

Thanks,

Kalen

[drtrmiller]

If you eradicate Solenopsis invicta from your property, you're sending an open invitation to species like Linepithema humile, Argentine ants, to step in. Where S. invicta stays mostly outdoors in a mound, supercolonies of Argentine ants will invade cars, indoors, in open areas outside, on, in, and around trees, and literally anywhere they can find food, shelter, and moisture, and compete even more ruthlessly against other ant species than S. invicta. Argentine ants will send an army inside your home to kill all your ants if a scout discovers your formicarium. Fire ants don't do this.

If you live in a disturbed habitat, there's little chance you as an individual can have to increase the diversity of ant fauna on and around your property. But if you use baits and poisons, you will most undoubtedly decrease it.

[KalenH]

From bad to worse for the southern states then. Is Linepithema humile trending to out compete invictus where the two species are in contact?

 

Nevermind. I found this document on the subject:

https://pdfs.semanti...c22f31a4a37.pdf

Edited by KalenH, October 12 2017 - 12:16 PM.

[Connectimyrmex]

Solenopsis invicta and Linepithema humile probably will both probably remain at their current invasive state. The only positive method of control might be the native ants like Prenolepis (these ants are active over the winter and dormant in the summer, and they are sometimes known to wipe out invasive ants in their "sleep").

[Vendayn]

Solenopsis invicta and Linepithema humile probably will both probably remain at their current invasive state. The only positive method of control might be the native ants like Prenolepis (these ants are active over the winter and dormant in the summer, and they are sometimes known to wipe out invasive ants in their "sleep").

This is probably the "best" strategy. However, in areas heavily infested with (Argentine ants) it doesn't work as well.

 

However I introduced Monomorium ergatogyna (pretty much exactly same as Monomorium minimum, the Little Black Ant on the east coast) into the apartment complex and they completely removed Argentine ants out of many areas. They are native, pretty tiny and do really well at removing invasive ants from locations. Their colonies get pretty huge. In areas heavily infested with Argentine ants, they do lower their numbers but probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless you watched the Argentine ant population from the beginning. 

 

There were also Monomorium ergatogyna in the last place I lived in, that were already there. They actually went in and invaded smaller Argentine ant colonies and dominated an entire hillside and controlled the whole "block". They even killed a lot of Solenopsis invicta that was on the hillside too, but I never saw them attack an actual nest, just workers.

 

I'm sure there must be more than just M. ergatogyna and Prenolepis that can drive out invasive ants or lower their populations. But, its probably kinda rare for an ant to be able to do that...that is also native.

[Connectimyrmex]

 

Solenopsis invicta and Linepithema humile probably will both probably remain at their current invasive state. The only positive method of control might be the native ants like Prenolepis (these ants are active over the winter and dormant in the summer, and they are sometimes known to wipe out invasive ants in their "sleep").

This is probably the "best" strategy. However, in areas heavily infested with (Argentine ants) it doesn't work as well.

 

However I introduced Monomorium ergatogyna (pretty much exactly same as Monomorium minimum, the Little Black Ant on the east coast) into the apartment complex and they completely removed Argentine ants out of many areas. They are native, pretty tiny and do really well at removing invasive ants from locations. Their colonies get pretty huge. In areas heavily infested with Argentine ants, they do lower their numbers but probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless you watched the Argentine ant population from the beginning. 

 

There were also Monomorium ergatogyna in the last place I lived in, that were already there. They actually went in and invaded smaller Argentine ant colonies and dominated an entire hillside and controlled the whole "block". They even killed a lot of Solenopsis invicta that was on the hillside too, but I never saw them attack an actual nest, just workers.

 

I'm sure there must be more than just M. ergatogyna and Prenolepis that can drive out invasive ants or lower their populations. But, its probably kinda rare for an ant to be able to do that...that is also native.

 

There are many more. For example, Solenopsis (xyloni and molesta), Forelius, Nylanderia, and Tapinoma are pretty good at driving out invasive species, because they employ many strange and effective tactics.

[Scrixx]

 

Solenopsis invicta and Linepithema humile probably will both probably remain at their current invasive state. The only positive method of control might be the native ants like Prenolepis (these ants are active over the winter and dormant in the summer, and they are sometimes known to wipe out invasive ants in their "sleep").

This is probably the "best" strategy. However, in areas heavily infested with (Argentine ants) it doesn't work as well.

 

However I introduced Monomorium ergatogyna (pretty much exactly same as Monomorium minimum, the Little Black Ant on the east coast) into the apartment complex and they completely removed Argentine ants out of many areas. They are native, pretty tiny and do really well at removing invasive ants from locations. Their colonies get pretty huge. In areas heavily infested with Argentine ants, they do lower their numbers but probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless you watched the Argentine ant population from the beginning. 

 

There were also Monomorium ergatogyna in the last place I lived in, that were already there. They actually went in and invaded smaller Argentine ant colonies and dominated an entire hillside and controlled the whole "block". They even killed a lot of Solenopsis invicta that was on the hillside too, but I never saw them attack an actual nest, just workers.

 

I'm sure there must be more than just M. ergatogyna and Prenolepis that can drive out invasive ants or lower their populations. But, its probably kinda rare for an ant to be able to do that...that is also native.

 

 

Curious about this. How were you able to introduce a colony where invasive species are already established? I imagine the colony you introduced would've just been killed off pretty quickly before they could get a foothold.

[Connectimyrmex]

 

 

Solenopsis invicta and Linepithema humile probably will both probably remain at their current invasive state. The only positive method of control might be the native ants like Prenolepis (these ants are active over the winter and dormant in the summer, and they are sometimes known to wipe out invasive ants in their "sleep").

This is probably the "best" strategy. However, in areas heavily infested with (Argentine ants) it doesn't work as well.

 

However I introduced Monomorium ergatogyna (pretty much exactly same as Monomorium minimum, the Little Black Ant on the east coast) into the apartment complex and they completely removed Argentine ants out of many areas. They are native, pretty tiny and do really well at removing invasive ants from locations. Their colonies get pretty huge. In areas heavily infested with Argentine ants, they do lower their numbers but probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless you watched the Argentine ant population from the beginning. 

 

There were also Monomorium ergatogyna in the last place I lived in, that were already there. They actually went in and invaded smaller Argentine ant colonies and dominated an entire hillside and controlled the whole "block". They even killed a lot of Solenopsis invicta that was on the hillside too, but I never saw them attack an actual nest, just workers.

 

I'm sure there must be more than just M. ergatogyna and Prenolepis that can drive out invasive ants or lower their populations. But, its probably kinda rare for an ant to be able to do that...that is also native.

 

 

Curious about this. How were you able to introduce a colony where invasive species are already established? I imagine the colony you introduced would've just been killed off pretty quickly before they could get a foothold.

 

For the people that have one of those mega-colonies that they raised for years.

[Vendayn]

 

 

 

Solenopsis invicta and Linepithema humile probably will both probably remain at their current invasive state. The only positive method of control might be the native ants like Prenolepis (these ants are active over the winter and dormant in the summer, and they are sometimes known to wipe out invasive ants in their "sleep").

This is probably the "best" strategy. However, in areas heavily infested with (Argentine ants) it doesn't work as well.

 

However I introduced Monomorium ergatogyna (pretty much exactly same as Monomorium minimum, the Little Black Ant on the east coast) into the apartment complex and they completely removed Argentine ants out of many areas. They are native, pretty tiny and do really well at removing invasive ants from locations. Their colonies get pretty huge. In areas heavily infested with Argentine ants, they do lower their numbers but probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless you watched the Argentine ant population from the beginning. 

 

There were also Monomorium ergatogyna in the last place I lived in, that were already there. They actually went in and invaded smaller Argentine ant colonies and dominated an entire hillside and controlled the whole "block". They even killed a lot of Solenopsis invicta that was on the hillside too, but I never saw them attack an actual nest, just workers.

 

I'm sure there must be more than just M. ergatogyna and Prenolepis that can drive out invasive ants or lower their populations. But, its probably kinda rare for an ant to be able to do that...that is also native.

 

 

Curious about this. How were you able to introduce a colony where invasive species are already established? I imagine the colony you introduced would've just been killed off pretty quickly before they could get a foothold.

 

For the people that have one of those mega-colonies that they raised for years.

 

I actually didn't raise them at all (the Monomorium ergatogyna). I just put them in an area that had very little Argentine ants, and they flourished. I found them by a motel and moved some of them. I don't have much interest keeping Monomorium since they are too good at escaping.

 

I did dig a small hole and then covered them up. So the Argentine ants had no way to get them. Monomorium ergatogyna are tiny enough that once they dug out, the Argentine ants have no way to get inside the colony. They are a pretty tiny ant. They are tiny and make massive sized colonies. Now they are scattered all around the complex and have areas where Argentine ants are driven out by them. Though I've never seen any down in the river bed, probably just too many Argentine ants (literally billions) down there even for a tiny sized ant to survive.

[Serafine]

There are many more. For example, Solenopsis (xyloni and molesta), Forelius, Nylanderia, and Tapinoma are pretty good at driving out invasive species, because they employ many strange and effective tactics.

Many of these genuses have their own invasives though, like Nylanderia fulva (Raspberry crazy ant) which is currently wreaking havoc in Florida (they can easily outcompete Solenopsis invicta) and Tampinoma melanocephalum (the invasive Ghost ants).

Edited by Serafine, October 14 2017 - 2:31 AM.

[Connectimyrmex]

 

There are many more. For example, Solenopsis (xyloni and molesta), Forelius, Nylanderia, and Tapinoma are pretty good at driving out invasive species, because they employ many strange and effective tactics.

Many of these genuses have their own invasives though, like Nylanderia fulva (Raspberry crazy ant) which is currently wreaking havoc in Florida (they can easily outcompete Solenopsis invicta) and Tampinoma melanocephalum (the invasive Ghost ants).

 

i'm talking about the native ones. Why would I be talking about the invasives?
The Nylanderia referred to the smaller, native species that often are found under rocks. The Tapinoma refers to Tapinoma sessile and its temporary parasite. 

[MegaMyrmex]

Monomorium in my idea would be a good choice(except for M. Pharoanis) since they are small and grow massive colonies. Their size lets them attack other ants in numbers and easily retreat. Tapinoma sessile may work, and Nylanderia would also work die to their formic acid spray. S. Molesta could also work since they steal the brood of other ants, which would mean that they could steal almost al of the brood of solenopsis invicta.

[RhodyAnts]

Maybe focusing on social parasites of invasives might help. Raising a bunch of social associated social parasite colonies might reduce the numbers.