Agricultural and Medical Impact of the Imported Fire Ants

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The earliest suggestion of economic damage by imported fire ants (IFA), Solenopsis invieta and S. richteri (=S. sagvissima var. richteri), was made in the spring of 1935 when a corn crop was damaged at Fairhope, Alabama; however, it was not reported until more than ten years later by Eden and Arant (1949). They also said damage to several other vegetable crops in 1937 was of sufficient concern that local, state, and Federal agencies attempted control of the ants with cyanogas dust on 2000 acres. Later, Lyle and Fortune (1948) concluded that IF As were a major crop pest in Mississippi. Wilson and Eads (1949) conducted surveys in Baldwin and Mobile counties in Alabama and found that IF As fed on corn, peanut and bean seeds, and the roots, stems and occasionally leaves of corn, beans, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes and cabbage. Crop damage for these two counties for 1948 was estimated to be in excess of $500,000.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: