| Radio programs for the week of 7 February 2000 (fe00207 - fe00211) | For more
information: Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture ARS Releases New Artillery in the Fight Against Fire Ants Imported Fire Ants An Agricultural Pest and a Human Health Hazard, U.S. Department of Agriculture Phorid Fly Squadrons Battling Fire Ants, U.S. Department of Agriculture Imported Fire Ant - FAQ, University of Texas
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The Sting of the Imported Fire Ant I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. Fifty years ago, invading Fire Ants from Brazil found their way to Florida. Thriving on sunshine and dug-up soil, the imported Fire Ant is now found in every Florida county, much of the Southeast United States, and is now marching on to western states (David Williams, Ph.D., Research Entomologist, United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Center for Medical, Agrcultural and Veterinary Entomology).... "Fire Ants are one of the most aggressive ants that we have in the United States." David Williams is an entomologist -- an expert in the imported Fire Ant -- who knows, firsthand, their biggest problem... "Unless it's a large Carpenter Ant that bites you, most of these bites you won't feel. It's the sting that you concern yourself about and only certain ants can sting. Fire Ants are one of them. And they pack a wallop." The wallop they pack is magnified by the density in which the ants are usually encountered... "If you do step into a mound, you're going to have 100 to 200 ants all over you, stinging. All of them are capable of stinging and stinging multiple times." While those allergic might have a more severe reaction, most of us suffer only short-term effects... "Most people will simply have a burning sensation and maybe jump around and brush the insects off. And after a few days they'd have a small pustule that will appear, and that'll go away in maybe a week or so." For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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 fe00208The Origin of the Fire Ant Invasion I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. Not even noticed at first, an invading Fire Ant from South America is now found in every county in Florida, and is overtaking native ants. Biologist Walter Tschinkel says the first of the species found its way to the United States more than 60 years ago (Walter Tschinkel, Ph.D., Professor, Biological Science, Florida State University)... "They arrived, probably by some sort of shipping in the mid-30s in Mobile (AL), they were first spotted there and have spread throughout most of the Southeastern United States, primarily in the early days, by being shipped in nursery products." Then, through the rapid spread of nursery products as part of the Florida land boom, the imported Fire Ant found a new home... "That large amount of shipping then spread the ant very effectively. And by the time the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) figured out what was happening, there were dozens of incipient populations throughout the Southeast." The stinging ant, which virtually takes over territory, is now spreading from the Southeast United States, into the warm and sunny Western U.S.... "It's been spreading across Texas slowly. It's been sort of pushing into the arid zones of Texas now. It's also found in several urban areas such as Phoenix, Oklahoma City and has recently been discovered in Southern California." For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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| fe00209 Florida's growth as a haven for Fire Ants I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. Scientists studying the imported Fire Ant many of us know for it's burning sting, say Florida's warm, sunny climate is only part of what made it such an attractive habitat for the invading ant. Entomologist David Williams is a Fire Ant expert who says the activities associated with Florida's growth are also partly responsible for the Fire Ant's spread (David Williams, Ph.D., Research Entomologist, United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Center for Medical, Agrcultural and Veterinary Entomology)... "If an area is disturbed, much like Florida and the Southeast United States, with all of our wonderful parks and things that we've disturbed, buildings and subdivisions and things like that... golf courses, then they move in very quickly. They love disturbed land." Biologist Walter Tschinkel says the continued disturbance helps keep the ants here (Walter Tschinkel, Ph.D., Professor, Biological Science, Florida State University)... "Anything that's regularly disturbed through mowing or things of that nature, would be favorable habitat for the Fire Ant. And of course that includes lawns." And once the Fire Ants find new territory, they literally take over.. "The native ants don't really have a prayer. And when they take over, then of course, they more or less dominate the habitat. They simplify the biodiversity, if you will, by simply having fewer and fewer species around when they're in large numbers." For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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| fe00210 Fire Ants and their non-human impact I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. While the burn of a Fire Ant sting is what most of us know about the invasive insect that came here from South America, there is impact as well on non-human targets. Entomologist David Williams says large concentrations of the Fire Ants -- which are common -- have a detrimental effect on wildlife (David Williams, Ph.D., Research Entomologist, United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Center for Medical, Agrcultural and Veterinary Entomology)... "When you have large numbers of Fire Ants, you're going to have few spiders, few other arthropods, few other ants. You're going to have few ground-nesting birds, fewer frogs, toads... So they do impact heavily on other organisms in large populations of Fire Ants." Partly because Fire Ants are found in every county in Florida, biologist Walter Tschinkel says the stinging ants have an impact on agriculture (Walter Tschinkel, Ph.D., Professor, Biological Science, Florida State University)... "Economic loss is created by the Fire Ant in some agricultural situations. They do damage certain kinds of plants, and some crops they might create interference with harvesting and so on..." But surprisingly the Fire Ant impact on agriculture isn't always negative... (Tschinkel) "They benefit the production for example in cotton and sugarcane and a few other crops. They control various kinds of pests so that the farmer has to spend less money on pesticide." For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.
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| fe00211 Success with a control for Fire Ants I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. While most retail remedies for pesty Fire Ants are temporary, scientists have found a more permanent control, by visiting the ants' South American homeland. Entomologist David Williams says that when Fire Ants invaded the Southeastern United States, they left, in South America, their natural predators. Including a type of tiny fly (David Williams, Ph.D., Research Entomologist, United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Center for Medical, Agrcultural and Veterinary Entomology)... "This small fly actually attacks Fire Ant workers and lays an egg on them or in them and then the egg hatches in their head and their head falls off. So it really scares Fire Ant workers." So in an effort to control the imported Fire Ants, scientists are importing and releasing the tiny fly... "We're actually doing releases right now in the United States. We're doing them in Florida, in fact. Our biggest concern was 'So what?' So we bring them up here... in the climate up here they may not even survive. And so we have survival of the flies now for eight months to a year, year and a half, which is great." And before the fly was brought here, scientists made sure they weren't bringing in another problem... "We've been studying these things for almost seven years in South America to make sure they don't attack anything other than the Fire Ant. They're very species specific." For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
