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How To Eradicate Solenopsis Invicta


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6 replies to this topic

#1 Offline The_Gaming-gate - Posted March 17 2024 - 11:45 AM

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Fire ants are an issue in the U.S. (says the one with the Invicta queen in a test tube) Everyone knows that. So how do you fix this? Biological warfare, of course.

If one were to raise a few fire ant colonies, and intentionally give them some sort of disease once they got alates (preferably something like a fungus that takes time to sprout) they could release the alates into a nuptial flight, and cause the death of countless queens who could go on to wreck someone’s agriculture.


Another way, would be to get some alates of another related species (one which is native to the us, such as geminata or xyloni) and release so many alates that most queens are forced to produce hybrids. (Best case, they are sterile hybrids)

You could go down to South America and collect a few S. daguerrei queens and release them in the states. Since they are parasitic, they will seek out the invicta nests and convert their colonies to daguerrei nests. Once the parasites run out of hosts, they will die out along with the invicta they usurped.

The other version is pesticides. But instead of being dumb and killing everything with besides ants with pesticides like what the U.S does, you make sure it does something that can only affect Solenopsis. Make it block the specific toxins fire ants produce.

Ant vaccines. Either give native ants a very small dosage of fire ant toxins that won’t kill them but cause an immune response, or go to a bigger arthropod such as a spider, and extract its antibodies, putting them into the native alates. Release these immune alates on large scales. Since them and their workers now have partial immunity to Solenopsis stings, they can successfully defend themselves and their food sources from fire ants, and maybe kill their colonies in the process.

Edited by The_Gaming-gate, March 17 2024 - 11:49 AM.

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Ants are small creatures... but together... they can rule the world.

 

 

I am a new Floridian ant-keeper, currently in possession of a fledgling S. Invicta colony, which can be viewed here: (A Beginning Antkeeper's) Journey of a Solenopsis Queen - Ant Keeping Journals - Ants & Myrmecology Forum (formiculture.com). I do plenty of research (I spent two months researching before catching my first invicta queen) and know a lot about a lot of ants. 


#2 Offline Artisan_Ants - Posted March 17 2024 - 12:39 PM

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Wow. Now those are some good ways people can get rid of S. invicta (if those will ever made of course).

Keeping:

3x - S. molesta 

1x - C. chromaiodes

2x - F. pallidefulva

2x - C. cerasi

1x - B. depilis

2x P. imparis (colonies) 3x P. imparis queens (1x queen in test tube, 3x queens in test tube, and 6x queens in another test tube. Can't wait to see the results!)

 

Check out my C. chromaiodes journal here: https://www.formicul...aiodes-journal/


#3 Offline ANTdrew - Posted March 17 2024 - 1:08 PM

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Sorry, but there’s no getting that genie back in the bottle.
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"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.

#4 Offline ReignofRage - Posted March 17 2024 - 3:15 PM

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 Breeding a fungus that festers within the alates of ants needs some mode of spreading, and if it outright kills off alates, then the spread has to be through other animals such as birds or other insects - think of horsehair worms for example. It also doesn't seem like a good idea to introduce alien diseases and funguses into habitats, just sounds like that would be asking for issues. 
 
 S. invicta (S. saevissima-group) and native S. geminata-group species are unlikely to hybridize due to being different species groups; it also would've happened already if it would happen due to S. invicta overlapping S. geminata-group species in the US for decades. If it did hybridize, we then would just have hybrids of a native and exotic species, which doesn't sounds any better than having an exotic. The hybrid might be able to fend off against the exotic better, but would likely have the downside of being dominant over the non-hybrid natives.
 
 The workerless inquiline, S. daguerrei, would do very little to kill off S. invicta considering it doesn't "convert colonies" into being conspecific and has the chance of being a new pest - there isn't an amazing track record with introducing new exotics to keep other exotics in check. We would also have to hope that the environment through all of the range S. invicta is in can also support the inquiline species. In a fantasy world, there would be a non-Formicidae species that is an S. invicta specialist that parasitizes the larvae like some wasps do to Pheidole. The issue, however, is the mode of spread for those wasps, is they lay their eggs in flowers, which the ants pickup when drinking from said flowers. The eggs then need to be carried on the ant all the way back to the nest and then transferred directly to the larvae. 
 
 A species-specific pesticide with no harm done to the habitat is something out of fantasy as it's basically impossible to test the short-term and long-term effects of it on everything from across all of the South US and California. It has also been in the works for decades with no sign of anything coming to fruition anytime soon. If we did make a species-specific pesticide, we would have to use it religiously, which leads to the issue of what's dubbed the Pesticide Treadmill. The Pesticide Treadmill is where the target species adapts to the pesticide after prolonged use and then a new, stronger, more destructive pesticide has to be formulated.
 
 Even without the ability to sting, S. invicta grow at a very rapid rate and is better suited to the environments they are invasive in. They can overwhelm numerous native species with ease. Look at non-stinging invasives such as Linepithema humile, Pheidole navigans, and Brachymyrmex patagonicus, none can sting and yet they are very prominent.
 
 The true way to eradicate S. invicta is to revert all land back to how it was before humans stepped foot through it and heavily altered it. Even then, some small populations of invasives will still stay, which is just the consequence of human transportation. But, like what AntDrew and others have said, there's no stop to it. There are more dangerous invasives that are more recently introduced such as Wasmannia auropunctataSolenopsis invicta has been long established, so it would be wise to try to erradicate potential threats instead of going after one that has been long-established and settled into its range.

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#5 Offline gcsnelling - Posted March 17 2024 - 4:12 PM

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A fungus might work to a degree. There is a fungus which is gaining traction in the pest control industry for bed bug control which seems to work well. Admittedly there would be some logistical issues to work out but it could be worth looking at.


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#6 Offline ZATrippit - Posted March 18 2024 - 2:51 AM

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Oh, it's all hopeless, there's nothing we can do, may as well give up, no point in trying...
FROM NEW ZEALAND YEAHHHHHH!!!!!!!Species I have:3x Iridomyrmex undescribed2x Ochetellus glaberFree Queen Ants- 100% Legit (not a scam):<p>https://blogs.mtdv.m...free-queen-ants

#7 Online Ernteameise - Posted March 18 2024 - 9:55 AM

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Another thing to add to the original post-

vaccines in invertebrates do not work like they do in vertebrates.

For example, since insects do not have an adaptive immune system (no lymphocytes!), the usual way of doing vaccines will not work. No lymphocytes- no antibodies and no adaptive cellular immunity.

The only vaccine that has been made available in bees (since last year!) works in a really weird way and has to be given to the larvae to actually work in the adult bees.

So no, this is not a valid way to go I am afraid.

And since I have worked in wildlife and ecosystem health in NZ, where the landscape is heavily changed by humans, 50% of all native animals have been wiped out and invasives dominate everywhere...

Lots of cautionary tales from NZ concerning willy-nilly introducing organisms (predators and pathogens both) which have been introduced to battle against other introduced organisms- this caused major havoc and suffering and further problems with the environment.

NOT a good idea.

 

But the idea ReignofRage has merit- the biggest issue is humans and human land use change and the heavy degradation of landscapes and environment.

If the heavily changed landscape would be reverted back to what it was before humans, introduced species would have a VERY large disadvantage and perish.

But as ANTdrew says- you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. It is highly unlikely that the US would remove and relocate millions of people just to restore the land to what it was.

So you have to do what the Kiwis are doing and try to live with the mess they have started.


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