DATE:     12/2/99
CONTACT:  Dr. Mac Horton, (864) 656-3113
WRITER:   Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343

Got Fire Ants? Well, Learn to Live with Them

     CLEMSON -- Tired of fire ants?
     Well, just learn to live with them, suggests Clyde Gorsuch, 
Clemson Extension entomologist.
     "We can learn to manage them better, but we'll never
eliminate them," he said. 
     Toward that end, Clemson Extension personnel are
intensifying efforts to teach the public how to use control
measures now on the market while researchers look at new chemical
and biological weapons and seek to better understand the fire
ant's place in the environment.    
     "We've had a significant increase in our efforts on fire
ants in the last two years," Gorsuch said. In 1998, Clemson
University Public Service Activities (PSA) requested $200,000 a
year for five years from the General Assembly for research and 
technology transfer concerning "Imported Fire Ant Biology and 
Management."
     The legislature approved the funds with directions for
Clemson to link up with the USDA/ARS and other states in the
Southern Legislative Conference Imported Fire Ant Task Force
Initiative (SLCTF). Those states include Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, 
Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
     "When you count all the county demonstrations our effort is
split about 50-50 between research and Extension projects,"
Gorsuch said.
     Extension agent Tim Davis of the Richland County office 
heads up an umbrella project that funds fire ant demonstration
sites in 18 counties -- Abbeville, Anderson, Berkeley,
Charleston, Colleton, Darlington, Georgetown, Greenville,
Greenwood, Lancaster, Richland, Horry, Marion, McCormick, Oconee, 
Orangeburg, Pickens and Sumter.
     "Almost all the sites are in high-visibility areas," Davis 
said. "That includes places like the Chamber of Commerce Coastal
Museum at Hilton Head, the Piedmont Technical College athletic
field in Greenwood and the entrance to Broadway at the Beach."
     Extension uses the sites to teach pesticide distributors,
agricultural chemical applicators, Master Gardeners,
greenskeepers and property owners about effective,
environmentally sound fire ant management methods.
     Davis also has a quarter acre demonstration for homeowners 
at the Sandhill Research and Education Center. He uses baits like
Amdro and Logic and Orthene, Dursban and Diazinon for both
individual mound treatments and broadcast treatments.
     "Most garden centers had been telling homeowners to 
broadcast Dursban and Diazinon, but they're not very effective 
used that way," he said. "These materials have to be applied to a
mound and soaked in with a couple of gallons of water. They kill
98 percent of the mound if you do it right." 
     Davis said Extension hopes to get South Carolinians to 
understand something about the fire ant, so they will make better 
use of control measures. That includes knowing when the ants 
are foraging for food and understanding that they should not use 
baits when rain is in the immediate forecast since baits break 
down in water. 
     Soil surface temperature is the key to when ants are
foraging for food. In the hot summer months, that's usually the
evening and at night, and in the spring and fall it's during the
warmer daylight hours.
     Fire ants cost the state's 1.4 million households an
estimated $112 million each year in insecticides, household
repairs and medical and veterinary care, according to
entomologist Mac Horton.
     "That's not counting what they cost business, industry, 
tourism and agriculture," he said. A team of Clemson agricultural
economists and entomologists is planning surveys to determine
just what those costs are. One University of Arkansas economist 
has estimated that the fire ant is a $3.8 billion problem across
the South. Fire ants are more than an economic problem, however.
     "Medical records indicate that 33,000 people in the state 
required medical treatment in 1998, more than half of them
children," Horton said. "Two people in South Carolina died of
allergic reactions to fire ant stings."
     Gorsuch and fellow entomologist Bob Bellinger are working on
two videotapes on the biology and management of fire ants to add
to Extension's educational arsenal. One will be an in-depth,
20-minute look at biology and behavior.
     "We'll also have a five-minute tape that covers best 
management practices - something a lawn and garden store could
pop into a VCR when a customer wants to know what to do about
fire ants," Gorsuch said. Both tapes will be made available to
county Extension offices, Master Gardener programs and others.
     He said research to learn more about the insect is
essential, and Clemson has initiated projects to map their
locations around the state and to find out why they colonize some
areas and not others; to learn more about their impact on
northern bobwhite, endangered species and some fish populations;
how effective baits are in no-till pasture seeding operations;
how nitrogen fertilizers affect fire ants; and how different
cropping practices affect fire ant populations. 
     Since the red imported fire ant has no natural enemies in 
the United States, scientists have imported biological weapons
from South America to help balance the equation, Davis said.
Clemson and USDA-ARS scientists released decapitating phorid 
flies at Myrtle Beach National Golf Club and near the Starkey
Swine Center at Clemson. The fly parasitizes individual ants,
causing their heads to fall off as larvae develop inside the
ants.
     The other weapon is a protozoan called Thelohania, the 
number one disease of fire ants in South America. 
     Horton said Extension may be able to recommend a new fire
ant pesticide within the next two years if the Environmental
Protection Agency approves an experimental chemical that he and
Davis are testing at the Sandhill REC and at McEntire Air 
National Guard Base. 
     The ants keep knocking out the sequenced flashing lights 
that line the runways, according to Derriel Amick, maintenance
supervisor for the base. Each time he replaces a circuit board,
it costs $3,000.
     Horton said long-term control of fire ants looks promising
with the experimental material. Davis said 11,000 pounds of it
could replace 11 million pounds of Dursban.
     "That's good for the environment," he said.
     "However, we'll probably never eradicate the fire ant, Davis
added. "We can only hope to control them to the point that
they're not on every street corner."
                              END