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04-09-14 11:01 PM - Post#167504
An Army of Red Ants are Coming! - Part I
The Red Imported Fire Ant (RIFA)
The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta), or simply RIFA, is one of over 280 species in the widespread genus Solenopsis. It is native to South America but it has become both a pest and a health hazard in the southern United States as well as a number of other countries.
Fire ants currently infest more than 325 million acres across the southern U.S., and pose a serious and growing public health threat injuring more than 20 million people each year with their stings. A full-blown colony of fire ants can number up to 500,000 members. Just one colony can have multiple queens capable of laying 1,500 eggs each, per day.
When disturbed, hundreds, sometimes thousands of ants, will attack an intruder, inflicting painful stings that, in the most severe cases, can be life threatening. Studies show that 10 to 15 percent of those stung by fire ants experience severe localized allergic reactions, with one to two percent experiencing dangerous systemic reactions that, in rare cases, result in death. Fire ants are predominately found in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also lists the entire island of Puerto Rico as infested.
The Spread of Fire Ants
In the 1930s, fire ant colonies were accidentally introduced into the United States through the seaport of Mobile, Alabama. Despite earlier views that cargo ships from Brazil docking at Mobile unloaded goods infested with the ants, recent DNA research confirmed that the likely source population for all invasive S. invicta in the USA occurs at or near Formosa, Argentina. The ants then spread from Alabama to almost every state of the American South. Since the 1990s infestations have been reported in Maryland, New Mexico, North and South Carolina and parts of Arizona. They have also been reported in California in the West, but probably arrived via ship or truck rather than by spreading.[In a similar way, the ants were accidentally introduced into Australia in 2001.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates more than $5 billion are spent annually on medical treatment, damage, and control in RIFA-infested areas. Further, the ants cause about $750 million in damage to agricultural assets, including veterinary bills and livestock loss, as well as crop loss.
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