called “gaster flagging” (Taber 41). Any worker ants in the vicinity sense the alarm, causing them to repeat the alarm. The alarm repeats rapidly, until every worker in the area knows of the threat (Taber 41). Swarming and attack quickly follows. Usually the worst cases of swarming occur when a fire ant mound is disturbed. A large concentration of fire ants is always stationed at the mound, and they all rush out of the entrance together immediately after recognizing a threat. The ants prioritize the well-being of the community over self-preservation, and they mindlessly sacrifice themselves in order to remove the threat. This is a main reason why greater injuries result from attacks that take place near a fire ant mound. Fire ants become more aggressive if the threat to the queen and young is high.
Fire ant baits are the second type of chemical extermination, but parasitic fungi are also effectively administered through this type of extermination. Humans exploit fire ants’ tendency to eat anything and everything they can hunt and gather. The baits exist in pellet form (Tufts, Spencer, Hunter, Bextine 238), and they seem like an excellent source of sugars to the fire ants that collect them. Sodium alginate composes the pellets (Tufts, Spencer, Hunter, Bextine 238). Sometimes the pellets contain one or more of the variety of chemicals that can kill and/ or weaken them. However, the more popular and successful type of bait contains a fungus called B. bassina (Tufts, Spencer, Hunter, Bextine 238). Viruses are also administered to fire ants through pellet baits. Entomologists Tufts, Hunter, and Bextine studied the potential Human Extermination Measures extermination uses of a single-stranded RNA virus that Instead of gaining respect and sympathy towards only infects the red imported fire Ant. The virus is called fire ants upon understanding their biology and behavior, S. invicta virus-1, or SINV-1, and it kills fire ants with a humans utilize the knowledge to develop and develop ex- 96%-97% success rate under laboratory conditions. The termination measures. Humans administer chemical an- virus infects ants at all stages of life, including larvae. This ticides by taking advantage of ant defensive and foraging could finally address the fundamental problems humans behavior. The United States also promotes measures to face with fire ant overpopulation, for this virus could potentially disrupt the unchecked, efficient fire ant reproinfect fire ants with diseases and parasites from South ductive cycle. Fire ant extermination through America that naturally prey on them. In order viruses only recently emerged in 2010, so to locate fire ant mounds that manage to application of the viruses is not yet widesurvive extermination, humans also train “Humans exploit spread. Therefore research indicates dogs to identify chemicals that fire ants excrete for communication purposes. fire ants’ tendency to that SINV-1 is the most effective of eighteen strains of virus that infect The most popular kind of fire ant ineat anything and everysecticide is the liquid mound drench. fire ants in the genus Solenopsis. In this type of extermination, a per Biological controls of fire ants thing.” son sprays liquid composed of ant-killthrough animals such as the phorid ing chemicals directly over a fire ant fly advance humans’ policy of fire ant mound. According to Jerry Naiser, the annihilation. Porter, Graham, Johnson, most effective way to administer the drench Thead, and Briano studied the effects of reinvolves exploiting the fire ants’ defense mechleasing the Northern Argentinan fly, Pseudacteon anism. Before spraying the entrance of the mound, the litoralis Borgmeier, in Alabama (208). The fly lays its eggs, exterminator should agitate the mound entrance with a and the baby flies emerge by decapitating the ants (209). stick. A large concentration of ant workers will swarm the A single phorid fly effectively kills one thousand fire ants stick, and as they attack the stick they should be sprayed. a day (209). Unfortunately, phorid flies find the weather The fire ant workers will become directly exposed to the more inhospitable than fire ants, so phorid fly populations poison, and those that do not die immediately will carry do not increase as dramatically as fire ant populations. the poison back to the queen and offspring. The main Dogs also function as a form of animal control for fire target of any chemical anticide is the queen, and drenches ants through their ability to smell chemicals. The dogs are effectively reach the target because the chemicals gradual- trained similar to bomb-seeking and drug-seeking dogs. ly sink down to the queen’s quarters in the tunnels buried Dogs can smell the alarm chemicals that fire ants release, beneath the sprayed area. According to research conduct- and these chemical alarms consistently sound during a ed by entomologists Layton, McAdory, and Hudson, the human extermination effort (Hui-Min 226). Chinese redrenches collectively possessed an 89%-100% efficiency search with the fire ant-seeking dogs revealed that if a fire ant nest contains at least ten individuals, the dog can lorate (42). 6
Volume 24 - Fall 2012 - N0. 2