March 1998 Special Issue

Table Of Contents:

• DISTRIBUTION OF RED IMPORTED FIRE ANTS IN TEXAS
• Texas Counties infested with red imported fire ants:
• EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM RESOURCES FOR FIRE ANTS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT
• Publications available from Publication and Supply Distribution
• On the World Wide Web (http://insects.tamu.edu)
• Slide sets, videotapes from the Audio Visual Library
• CD-ROM, "IMPORTED FIRE ANT BYTES" (U. ARKANSAS)

DISTRIBUTION OF RED IMPORTED FIRE ANTS IN TEXAS

The list below of 171 Quarantined counties is from the March 1997 Texas Department of Agriculture Imported Fire Ant Quarantine map (TDA Q591C). Articles to be moved out of these quarantined counties that require a certificate or permit include: 1) Soil, separately or with other things, except soil samples shipped to approved laboratories; potting soil is exempt, if commercially prepared and shipped in original containers; 2) plants with roots with soil attached, except house plants maintained indoors and not for sale; 3) grass sod; 4) baled hay or straw stored in direct contact with soil; 5) used soil moving equipment; 6) logs, pulpwood and stumps; 7) any other products, articles, or means of conveyance of any character whatsoever not covered by the above, when it is determined by an inspector that they present a hazard of spread of the imported fire ant and the person in possession thereof has been notified. For more information about imported fire ant regulations, contact the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Texas Counties infested with red imported fire ants

ANDERSON ANGELINA ARANSAS ARCHER ATASCOSA AUSTIN BANDERA BASTROP BEE BELL BEXAR BLANCO BOSQUE BOWIE BRAZORIA BRAZOS BROWN BURLESON BURNET CALDWELL CALHOUN CALLAHAN CAMERON CAMP CASS CHAMBERS CHEROKEE CLAY COLLIN COLORADO COMAL COMANCHE COOKE CORYELL CROCKETT DALLAS DELTA DENTON DEWITT DIMMIT DUVAL EASTLAND ECTOR EDWARDS ELLIS ERATH FALLS FANNIN FAYETTE FORT BEND FRANKLIN FREESTONE FRIO GALVESTON GILLESPIE GOLIAD GONZALES

GRAYSON GREGG GRIMES GUADALUPE HAMILTON  HARDIN HARRIS HARRISON HAYS HENDERSON HIDALGO HILL HOOD HOPKINS HOUSTON HOWARD HUNT JACK JACKSON JASPER JEFFERSON JIM WELLS JOHNSON JONES KARNES KAUFMAN KENEDY KERR KIMBLE KENDALL KINNEY KLEBURG LAMAR LAMPASAS LA SALLE LAVACA LEE LEON LIBERTY LIMESTONE LIVE OAK LLANO LUBBOCK MADISON MARION MASON MATAGORDA MAVERICK MCCULLOCH MCLENNAN MCMULLEN MEDINA MENARD MIDLAND MILAM MILLS MONTAGUE

MONTGOMERY MORRISNACOGDOCHES NAVARRO NEWTON NUECES NUECHES ORANGE PALO PINTO PANOLA PARKER POLK RAINS REAL RED RIVER REFUGIO ROBERTSON ROCKWALL RUSK SABINE SAN AUGUSTINE SAN JACINTO SAN PATRICIO SAN SABA SHELBY SHERMAN SMITH SOMERVILLE STEPHANS SUTTON SWISHER TARRANT TAYLOR TITUS TOM GREEN TRAVIS TRINITY TYLER UPSHUR UVALDE VAL VERDE VAN ZANDT VICTORIA WALKER WALLER WASHINGTON WEBB WHARTON WICHITA WILBARGER WILLACY WILLIAMSON WILSON WISE WOOD YOUNG ZAVALA

Although imported fire ants have been collected from the following counties, they are not currently considered to be fully infested and are not included as Quarantined counties:

ARCHER
CALLAHAN
CLAY
CROCKETT
E L PASO
HOWARD
KIMBLE
LUBBOCK
MENARD
MILLS
SHERMAN
SUTTON
SWISHER
WILBARGER

If you have an occasion to collect or submit suspected red imported fire ant samples for counties not currently known to be infested, please submit them in a well-sealing vial containing rubbing alcohol, trying to collect approximately 25 worker ants in the sample. You can submit them to the Fire Ant Project, a local Texas Department of Agriculture Inspector, or directly to the taxonomist assigned to maintaining records of fire ants for the USDA Quarantine Program (Eric McDonald, Entomologist, USDA-APHIS-PPQ, Plant Inspection Station, 3004 Mecom Rd., Houston, TX 77032). This spring and summer, researchers from Texas Tech University and University of Texas at Austin will be conducting surveys of fire ants in counties along the western edge of the infestation.
 
 

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM RESOURCES FOR FIRE ANTS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT

County Extension Agents in infested and/or quarantined Texas counties constantly receive questions about imported fire ants and their management. Numerous resources are available to assist them in providing current, research based, un-biased information.

Publications available from Publication and Supply Distribution:

B-6043, "Managing Red Imported Fire Ants in Urban Areas" (9/1996)

1. L-2061, "House-Infesting Ants and Their Management" (1/1998)

1. Also see fire ant sections in appropriate agriculture guides (B-1220, sorghum, p. 4; B-1251, wheat, p. 4;B-1401 forage crops, p. 24)

 

1. B-1536, "Fire Ants and Their Management" (suggestions for management in agriculture and older version of B-6043)(10/1993)

 

1. SS-1274, "Red Imported Fire Ant: Biology and Damage" (27 color slides), 1990

1. SS-1316, "Red Imported Fire Ant (Solenopsis ivnicta) Management" (58 color slides), 1995
2. VHS-544, "Fire Ants" (U. Georgia), 29 min, 1989.
3. VHS-544, "The Hidden Threat" (KTBX Channel 3 News), 18 min.
4. VHS-458, "Living with Fire Ants" (TAEX), 15 min., 1989.

 

CD-ROM, "IMPORTED FIRE ANT BYTES" (U. ARKANSAS)

The Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, has developed the enclosed CD-ROM for use by Extension educators. This is an interactive, multi-media program that will assist you in educating the public about imported fire ants. Although they have tried to have a minimal number of errors in this product, there are several corrections:

- The statement in the biology section "minimum temperature of 10 degrees F" should be "average minimum temperature of 10 degrees F."

- The statement in the control section, cattle pastures in the use of contact insecticides. The label on Orthene® TT&O changed after the text portion of the program was corrected, currently, carbaryl (Sevin® formulations), hydramethylnon (Amdro®) and a few other insecticides are registered for treating individual mounds in pastures).

- In the acknowledgment section, "Allen-Marie Callcott" should be "Anne-Marie Callcott".

If you have questions about this CD-ROM product, or if you are interested in obtaining more copies, contact Donna R. Shanklin, Assistant Extension Specialist - Natural Resources (ph. 870/460-1893; fax: 870/460-1092; e-mail: shanklin@uamont.edu; World Wide Web: http://www.uaex.edu or fireant@uaex.edu). We greatly thank Ms. Shanklin for providing 200 copies to the Texas Agricultural Extension Service for distribution to agents in infested counties.