Fire Ant Solution (Tiny Flies Chop Their Heads Off!)

AP

[SoFloFreeper]

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Someday, maybe in your back yard, a fire ant will be toiling, lugging a grain of sand from the mound. Happy as an ant can be. Then it feels a dart of discomfort, over in a tenth of a second, and knows something is wrong. Its legs tap the soil. It bends and twists, then it goes on doing what ants do. About three weeks later, its head falls off.

How cool is that?

"Everyone likes that part," said George Schneider, who is in charge of raising pinhead-size flies that can behead fire ants. As biological administrator for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Schneider is surrogate father to thousands of phorid flies reared in a Gainesville lab.

Native to South America -- same as the imported red fire ants -- phorid flies evolved to use fire ant bodies as nurseries for their young.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is employing the flies to combat fire ants in 12 Southeastern states and Puerto Rico. Scientists think the flies eventually will become established and expand their territory everywhere fire ants have spread, introducing a natural enemy the ants didn't find when they arrived in Louisiana or Alabama in the 1930s. The ants probably came in soil used as ship ballast.

Released near a fire ant mound, the flies hover, waiting to dive on their prey. The ant senses a split second of unease when a fly deposits an egg in one of the small tubes the ant uses to breathe.

"They know something happened. They do a little dance," Schneider said.

The egg hatches, and the larva migrates to the ant's head. It begins eating everything inside. Once ready, it causes the head to topple off, and the larva spends two weeks in the hollow head becoming an adult. Then it flies out of the ant's mouth.

Recently, the last of about 100,000 fire ants, each the host of a fly's egg, were released in a Sarasota County park. The hope is the flies, when they hatch, will live long and produce many fine, fire-ant-killing offspring.

"There's no doubt they'll survive. There's lots of fire ants for them," said Fred Santana, integrated pest management control coordinator for Sarasota County in charge of dispersing the doomed ants.

It is the second brood of phorid flies released in Sarasota County. The first, in 2002, has spread about five miles from the initial site, he said.

Flies released in the Gainesville area since 1998 have expanded into Georgia, said Phil Koehler, a University of Florida entomology professor. "It takes a couple years for the population to become established," he said.

The flies are highly particular about what feeds their youngsters, with different species focusing on different size fire ants. As much as people might like the idea of fire ant heads rolling off, the flies won't wipe out the pests. Fire ants are here to stay, Schneider said.

The flies help control the ants by knocking back the population and reducing the number of new colonies. They also reduce the number of mounds that re-infest areas treated with insecticide.

"If you have 10 acres with one or two mounds, you probably wouldn't care, but there can be hundreds on those 10 acres. Then it becomes a problem," Schneider said.

Although each female fly can lay 150 to 200 eggs, that won't put much of a dent in a mound with 250,000 ants. The fly's main benefit is scaring fire ants.

"They're deathly afraid of them," Santana said. When the flies hover over a mound, the ants prefer to cower inside and don't venture as far to forage, meaning the mound is weakened and starved. Native ants have a better chance of competing, and the mounds don't multiply.

"The flies keep them in the mound. The colony won't grow. Everything slows down," Schneider said. Anyone who has stepped in a mound knows how fire ants got that name. They bite you to hold on while punching a stinger on their tails into your skin. They wait, crawling up your leg without attacking until one gives off a signal, and they all sting at once.

With larger colonies, a more aggressive attitude and no natural enemies, they displace native ant species. They are voracious feeders, attacking anything they find, including birds that nest on the ground, young snakes and turtles that hatch in underground nests. They even kill young citrus trees by stripping bark from the trunk.

"They're a big problem for livestock," Schneider said. Especially vulnerable are newborn goats and sheep that tend to remain in one place, unlike calves and foals that follow the mother.

"They can be literally killed," Schneider said.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

In the immortal words of Hank Hill:

"Now this is what environmentalists need to focus on; finding forms of nature that destroy others forms of nature that are inconvenient to man."

[harpu]

Can you give us your link...

[xJones]

Would phorid flies pose a problem to anything else but fireants?

[Luigi Vasellini]

I wonder if their buzzing sounds like Allah akbar!!

[Publius6961]

Cool!

[A. Pole]

The ant senses a split second of unease when a fly deposits an egg in one of the small tubes the ant uses to breathe. "They know something happened. They do a little dance," Schneider said. The egg hatches, and the larva migrates to the ant's head. It begins eating everything inside. Once ready, it causes the head to topple off, and the larva spends two weeks in the hollow head becoming an adult. Then it flies out of the ant's mouth.

Gross and cruel! It should be reported to the Animal Legal Defense

[escapefromboston]

Muslim Flys???

[orionblamblam]

> The egg hatches, and the larva migrates to the ant's head. It begins eating everything inside. Once ready, it causes the head to topple off, and the larva spends two weeks in the hollow head becoming an adult. Then it flies out of the ant's mouth.

Ah, that Christmas story never fails to inspire...

[SoFloFreeper]

Can you give us your link... No. But here is a similar story: http://www.venicegondolier.com/NewsArchive3/111004/vn13.htm

[Bikers4Bush]

Exactly my thought. How do we keep them from killing normal ants?

[showme_the_Glory]

How many phorids would it take to keep an acre clear of my least favorite pest in Texas.

[zook]

Massive LOL bump!

[tcostell]

That was my first thought.... I wonder what we'll need to eat the flies?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Spooky.

[So Cal Rocket]

Dateline: December 7, 2011

Phorid Fly Infestation Continues

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Nobody predicted this would happen, but it did. Seven years ago, the Florida Department of Agriculture imported several hundred thousand phorid flies to combat the fire ant infestation. These flies adapted well to their new environment, thrived and multiplied many times over.

Now, the air is thick with these tiny creatures. "I have to wear a mask in order to breath in the park", said Buford Pickens, "you inhale a few of these critters and you wish you'd stayed indoors!"

Authorities are now investigating importing the Mouldy Toad, the only known predator of the phorid fly, to put down the infestation.

[moonhawk]

Video on Al-Jazeera....

[orionblamblam]

'Twas the night before Christmas,
And all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring,
Except for all the fire ants running like mad for the air raid shelters.

[Shellback Chuck]

Diazinon works wonders on these critters.

[texson66]

Here's some info on that issue you raised:

"Basic Biology. Phorid flies are found throughout the world and are a serious pest when found in food producing or food handling facilities. This fly breeds primarily in and feeds on moist decaying organic matter. Because it frequents such unsanitary areas, it could potentially carry diseasecausing bacteria onto food products.

Phorid flies are a particular concern in hospitals and other health care facilities. Phorid fly larvae have been found in open wounds of patients and in laboratory petri dishes which might result in potential contamination due to bacteria which might be found on their bodies.

Phorid flies develop by egg, larvae, pupa, and adult. The tiny eggs are deposited on or near the surface of decaying organic matter. The female will deposit about 20 eggs at one time, and the larvae emerge in 24 hours and feed for a number of days (8-16) depending on food and temperature. They then crawl to a drier spot to pupate. Under ideal conditions, the life cycle from egg to adult can be completed in as little as fourteen days but may take as long as 37 days. "

In action:

Phorid flies (Pseudacteon solenopsidis) always stay in front of their victim, then quickly move to the side of the ant to inject an egg into the thorax. This female (top left) has chosen a large fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) worker and may harass it up to two minutes before ovipositing.