Fire Ant
It was so dry and so cold yesterday with a prediction of no precipitation for the next 7 days - I just had to find something good to put in a column.

The best I could come up with at the drop of a hat was the fact fire ant numbers and activity appears to be declining. But let's face it no one is keeping count!

Fire ants slipped into the U.S. aboard a freighter from South America into Mobile, Ala., in the 1930s. In the past 70 decades they have spread across the southern states and distant state locations hitchhiking on hay trucks and rolls of St. Augustine and Bermuda grass.

The females mate with males while flying some 200 feet up in the air. They can be blown by strong winds to far away counties, crawl from pasture to pasture and can float in groups down streams after a heavy rain.

Fire ants are common in the Wichita Falls area, but I have none on my peach orchard in northwest Clay County.

There are sprays, powders and poisons to fight the ants, but it is expensive since the whole acreage usually has to be dosed at the same time to be effective.

But if no one keeps track of fire ant numbers, how do we know they are dying off?

Bart Drees, AgriLife entomologist, says there is no hard data, but observations across the region indicate a drop in numbers, especially small and fewer mounds.

Reasons for the decline are unknown and will surely be discussed at the annual Texas Fire Ant Conference April 4-7 in Galveston.

Possibilities include diseases in the ant colonies as well as long periods of excessively hot, dry weather in the summer and some in the winter.

Drees said, "We would like to think our release and establishment of parasitic phorid flies has had an effect, but there is no direct information to support this.

Then he sadly added, "Chances are, when favorable environmental conditions return so will the flies.

One reason for the interest in the drop in numbers is chemicals manufacturers have been contacting extension offices wondering why they have not been selling as much chemicals to fight fire ants as in the past years. These products include dusts, liquid concentrates, baits and granules. Even gasoline has been poured on mounds, but this is dangerous near buildings and tall grass.

Annual damage in the states from fire ants has been set at $1.2 billion a year.

Much of the northern tier of fire ant states, such as South Carolina, got some very cold weather last winter and it appears to be happening now. This might help this winter, said Tim Davis of Clemson University in South Carolina.

For more information on fire ants go to fireant.tamu.edu.