Ever been stung by a fire ant? If you haven’t, trust me, it HURTS! They latch onto your skin with their mandibles, or mouth parts, and sting repeatedly, pivoting in circles to sting in different spots. Their venom burns like a hot match.
There are several different species of fire ant, but the baddest of them all is the Red Imported Fire Ant. As you can guess from its name, this insect terror isn’t native to the United States. It was brought into U.S. from South America about 60 years ago and since then, it has steadily spread throughout the southeastern states and into Texas.
So why can’t we get rid of them? Well, it’s not for lack of trying. Since 1958 researchers have tested more than 7,000 different chemicals on these ants, but so far nothing has been that effective.
By now you’re probably wondering, what does all this have to do with microbes? Well, a parasitic microbe may offer a solution to our fire ant problems, as described in this article:
Thelohania spores in fire ant blood
The microbial ant foe is called Thelohania solenopsae <Theh-loh-hay-knee-uh soh-leh-nop-see> It’s a protozoan. It infects only fire ants, not humans, plants or even other ant species. It doesn’t kill the ants immediately, but slowly, steadily weakens them. Worker ants pass the protozoa to the queen ant when they give her food. As the queen gets weaker, she lays fewer and fewer eggs, all of them infected with the protozoa. It takes about 9 months to a year and a half to eliminate a colony.
Fire ant queen killed by B. bassiana
Thelohania isn’t the only microbe being studied as a means of getting rid of fire ants. Scientists are also working with a fungus called Beauveria bassiana <boh-ver-ee-uh bah-see-ah-nuh> that infects fire ants. This fungus grows all over an ant and punches through its hard exoskeleton (an ant’s "skin") to grow inside the ant’s body as well. An infected ant looks like it's covered with white fuzz.
If you want more detailed information about some of the research being done in using microbes and other creatures to tackle fire ants, visit the Ames Plantation web site's Fire Ant Research page.
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