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Here are a few pics of my day. What a day it was :D . A 4 hour period of nothing but drones and queens in post nuptial flight landing. It rained hard last night. This afternoon there were wingless queens (some had pieces of wing) all over the dirt and drones being killed by other fire ants. My brother's back yard is FULL of fire ants. My brother and I found 28 queens starting new holes and wondering the ground (yes, i grabbed 28, I just coundn't stop). I have pics and vids you guys might like of drones being killed by wondering fire ants. Not many things live in my back yard because fire ants clean everything up. (the vids are at the bottom)
Here is a pic of the 28 queens
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll181/Paulno28/Picture191.jpg
Here are couple close shots in the tubes
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll181/Paulno28/Picture184.jpg
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll181/Paulno28/Picture181.jpg
Here is a shot of a drone being killed by other fire ants
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll181/Paulno28/Picture174.jpg
Here are a few videos of the poor drone:
http://www.easysitecreator.net/1.mpg
http://www.easysitecreator.net/2.mpg
http://www.easysitecreator.net/3.mpg
...
Damn, that are a lot of queens. What are you going to do with 28 colonies ? ;)
Don't forget these ants have a bad sting. :) Good luck with them. Hope at least one of them makes you a nice colony.
btw: nice pictures.
Haha, not too many? I suppose you don't want to have 28 fire ant colonies in your house :) Congratulations, and be careful with them ;)
Nice. How does the tubes you use as "test-tubes"? Don't the water disappear twice as fast as "normally"?
Yes, the water will disappear fast. I'm going to have to use a serenge to refill it and try not to disturd them too much. Unfortunately the only store that sells tubes is an hour drive away and I didn't have time for that.
I had to get as many as I could. My brother is going to have to poison his yard. He already has enough fireants and he doesn't need more. So hopefully I can find homes for most of these. If anyone lives in San Antonio-Texas-USA let me know if you want one.
Also, why were the random fireants killing the male drones and not the queens that were walking around? I didn't know they did that. Do they know that they are going to die anyway and they might as well use them for food?
Sure, the males after landing are usually killed by other ants, including their own species. The new queens are also often killed, if they are from different nest, but Solenopsis queen is much stronger than workers and well armed, so maybe they preferred to hunt males, which are unarmed and are easy prey.
Mr_Jason,
I’m sorry, but the RIFA is one of the most hated and persecuted pest ants in the US. The southern States spend millions of $ each year for its control, as do other nations worldwide. A complete eradication, though, seems impossible.
These ants eat up numerous native and interesting ant species as well as other creatures that once have been in your area. Why do you try to rescue such ants?
Incidentally, your avatar also shows an introduced pest ant, the Black-headed ant Tapinoma melanocephalum. Do you have some strange preference for such nasty organisms?
I am worried!
derameisige
I have to agree. Even if i genereally disapprove the use of insecticides, i agree the RIFA needs to be fought back on every border. Definitly there will never be a chance to completely remove them from the continents it infected. But we can make sure they dont completely eradicate wildlive diversity in the areas they took over.
Undoubtedly, you will have gotten some PNs of enthusiastic people from around the world, asking you to send some queens. I seriously hope you will not.
Necturus
Of course trading these ants outside their current territory would be nasty (and illegal!), but if someone has them already in his yard, keeping them in house won't change anything. Inviting them to USA wasn't smart, but probably couldn't be avoided, and now southern states ARE their natural environment. It is normal that many species sometimes spread over large area, often destroying many others. I think we should understand them. We are also invasive species.
If you like to keep them yourself that is fine by me (they are common ants in nature where you live) but don't release them back into the wild (look FAQ's in beginner section) It is not done to release ants back into nature. They harm the eco system, only if you can release them back into nature where you find them.
We are also invasive species.
That could lead to an endless discussion. ;) But i agree in some way.... (don't ask me more about it :) )