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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Imported Fire Ant and Household Insects Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #60387
Title: FIRE ANT BIOCONTROL WITH PHORID FLIES AND OTHER NATURAL ENEMIES

Author
item PORTER, COLLEEN
item Porter, Sanford

Submitted to: Landscape and Nursery Digest
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/15/1995
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Importing natural fire ant enemies from South America could help tilt the ecological balance in the United States so that our native ants could compete with this imported pest on an "even playing field". Parasitic phorid flies in the genus Pseudacteon are one promising area of research.

Technical Abstract: They are called fire ants, and anyone who has been stung knows why. Fire ants are as much a part of life in the South as grits ans kudzu. With average densities of 1,200 to 3,000 ants per square yard, they can be impossible to avoid- especially for workers in nursery and landscape businesses.