DATE:     5/4/01
CONTACT:  Dr. Craig Allen, (864) 656-4461; allencr@clemson.edu
          Dr. Paul M. Horton, (864) 656-3382; mhorton@clemson.edu
WRITER:   Tom Lollis, (803) 284-3343; tlollis@clemson.edu
  
Fire ant treatments good news
for quail, amphibians, reptiles
  
     CLEMSON -- Preliminary results from one year of fire ant 
bait treatments on six plantations in the South Carolina Coastal 
Plain indicate that small birds, amphibians and reptiles benefit 
from lower populations of imported fire ants.
     The second year of the Clemson University study begins Tuesday 
and Wednesday with aerial applications of Amdro to about 1,700 acres
total at Nemours Plantation in Beaufort County, the James W. Webb
Wildlife Center and Game Management Area in Hampton County and four
other private plantations in Jasper and Colleton counties.
     Quail populations across the South have declined significantly 
in the last few decades, according to Craig Allen, wildlife biologist
and leader for the S.C. Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit 
at Clemson. 
     "Evidence from Texas indicates that quail populations can 
suffer in areas with extremely high fire ant densities," he said. 
"No large scale monitoring of populations of amphibians and reptiles
has been done, but the scientific consensus is that many species 
have declined."
     Allen said that pre-treatment counts of quail, reptiles and
amphibians were taken in 1999. On each plantation a treatment area 
of about 300 acres and a control area of similar size were selected.
     "Populations of targeted animals were about the same in 
treatment and control areas," he said. Populations remained stable 
on control plots, but after the first application of fire ant bait 
in the spring of 2000, the numbers of quail, amphibians and reptiles
increased about 50 percent in the treatment areas," he said.
     "When we collect data this fall, we'll better be able to tell 
if we can attribute that increase to fire ant control," said Allen.
     Allen's co-investigator Mac Horton, Clemson Extension
entomologist, sees a satisfying irony in the preliminary results.
     "We are using a narrow-spectrum pesticide to preserve the 
natural ecosystem by removing an invasive species," he said. The
imported fire ant, originally from South America, has no natural
enemies in the United States.
     Ernie Wiggers, executive director of the Nemours Wildlife
Foundation, was instrumental in getting amphibians and reptiles 
added to the fire ant study. He is encouraged by the first year's
results.
     "We have a remarkable number of fire ant mounds at Nemours," 
he said. Wiggers is concerned about indirect impacts that fire 
ants might have.
     "What are they doing to the insect forage base of young birds 
and to the vegetation that the birds need?" asked Wiggers.
     Investigators have found that imported fire ants also have 
an adverse impact on spring flowering plants such as trillium,
bloodroot and violet. Seeds of such plants eaten by the imported 
fire ant do not germinate.
     This year's bait application begins Tuesday morning at 
Nemours. Three sites will be treated Tuesday and three on Wednesday.
The aircraft that will be used is a Cessna 188 B Ag Truck owned by 
the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. It is based 
in Mission, Texas.
                                   END