By Burt Glover
October 1, 2023

I have not written much in the past few weeks, the reason being that I have been overwhelmed. It all started innocently one day, while sitting in my backyard scanning the treetops for birds, I happened to look down at the (ahem!) slightly overgrown lawn at my feet, and there they were… ants. Ants of various colors and sizes; ants scurrying over every blade of grass; ants feeding on small wildflowers; ants scouring the ground.

Taking an afternoon walk, I photographed some of the ant mounds along the sidewalk in my neighborhood. My big mistake was pondering, “I wonder what kind of ants these are?” Since then, my mind has been in a tizzy.

As it turns out, it’s difficult to find information about ants, unless you’re looking for one of the hundreds of articles on fire ants. There are apparently hundreds of other ant species in the southeastern U.S., but the lion’s share of university research and information is is on fire ants and how to kill them.

Don’t get me wrong. I did find some articles on non-fire ants. These articles explained whether my ants were monomorphic or polymorphic, analysis of male genitalia, whether they are monogynous or polygynous, etc. This was, maybe, a little more than I was looking for. 

In the South, talk of ants usually leads straight to, “Fire ants… kill!” It is the same for any ant that may happen into kitchen, lawn or garden. “Kill!”

Pest control companies respond by drenching house and garden with insecticide poisons. According to popular belief, there is no such thing as a good ant. To be an ant is, in itself, akin to an act of war. Mention of this draws me into memories of the 1960’s. Like, wow, man. 

It was in early May of 1967 when the B-17s descended on Aiken. Simultaneously, orange-red balloons were strategically placed above the fields adjacent to Kennedy Jr. High. The students milled around on the playground, doing what adolescent teens do on a barren playground during their lunch period. Suddenly, the air filled with a deafening roar and the ground shook.

A giant B-17 bomber appeared overhead, flying at treetop level as it dropped its payload — insecticide bait, Mirex, targeted to kill fire ants. One student who witnessed this spectacle recalled years later, “The bait rained down. It smelled nasty- a chemical scent- but it wasn’t enough to make anyone go inside. I watched, hoping the plane would hit the balloons. It was cool!”

All in all, this poisoned bait was broadcast over at least 100,000 acres in the CSRA that May, followed by subsequent applications months later, and then more in the following years, up into the 1970’s.

In 1967, very few people had ever heard of, or even seen a fire ant. Clemson and USDA representatives had to hold county meetings to apprise farmers and landowners of the dangers of this ant. “Over 13% of our land has been overtaken by fire ants. We must eradicate them completely.”

Mirex was purported to target only the invasive fire ant, and be totally harmless to native ant species, wildlife, and humans. It was an easy sell. Despite their efforts, or maybe because of them, fire ant populations exploded in our state.

After dropping 550,000 lbs. of Mirex on Southern lands over those years, the results of this pesticide use were beginning to be known. Surprise! This poison is long-lived in the soil, the water, and in the bodies of animals who are exposed, or eat other animals who are exposed. Turtles, fish, birds, people, bears, coyotes, shrimp, crabs…. you name it — all with dangerous levels in their bodies. The pesticide accumulates and stays in fat cells for decades, affecting liver health and reproductive success. It was banned by the EPA in 1976, then unanimously banned by convention worldwide as one of the 12 worst pesticides in 1978.

So, what did the massive kill campaign of the 60’s-70’s accomplish? Well, the claims of “not hurting native ant species” turned out to be totally wrong. Yes, fire ants are bad guys who can dominate indigenous species — but only if they can gain a foothold. In my opinion, the 1960s era poison campaigns carried unintended consequences, wiping out the only reliable check on their spread: native, indigenous ants. It was the extirpating of native ants that fully opened the door for fire ant invasion.

I realize that fire ants are a problem. They can and sometimes do kill anything and everything in their path — turtles, alligators, baby bunnies, baby birds, lizards and their eggs, butterfly larvae…. everything! And as anyone who has ever stepped on a fire and nest could attest, it takes less than 2 seconds to rouse a stinging rebuke.

Fire ants also inflict large-scale damage to agricultural crops. The damage can be seen on a smaller scale in home gardens. In my mother’s garden, fire ants chew holes in the okra flowers. The also farm aphids on the plants, which suck juices from the young fruit, producing hard nodules on the pods. Fire ants also frequent the flowers in her yard, with heavy visits to her “Dr. Tinsley” camellias, which sometimes exude copious nectar.

In my extensive reading over the past three weeks, I have found what may be effective in both the short and long term — spot control. It seems that selective treatment is key. By killing or subduing only the individual colony, rather than all the ants on the property, enables native ants to gain control and, over the longer term, keep the invasive populations in check.

Spot control can be done with boiling water– maybe 3 gallons worth– poured over a mound in your yard. Another spot control method used with success is an extremely dilute solution of D-limonene doused/sprayed onto the mound or trail. D-limonene is derived from citrus peels and can be bought as a food additive or cleaner on Amazon. 

Eliminating your fire ant colonies may give you a chance to pat yourself on the back and give a hardy “Har, har, har.” But as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. There are other introduced ants that may fill the void left by fire ants. Argentine ants? Maybe. Crazy ants? Oh lord, you’ll be wishing for good ol’ fire ants after the crazy ants take control.

Watching the numerous ant species in my yard, I suddenly realized that there were no fire ants in the mix. Only a coalition of co-existing other ants, hopefully not invasive, competing for their space. I managed to identify two native species in my yard and learn about their life cycles and habits. This led me to wonder how ants fit into the larger scheme of things. Researching this, my eyes were opened wide. My next question became, “Could our ecosystem survive without ants?”

The short answer is “No.”

Ants are natural “farmers” in our forests, fields and yards. They build their extensive nests, sometimes as deep as 25 feet, multiple times per year; in the process they cycle the inaccessible soil nutrients to the surface, making them more available to plants and trees. This effect is the equivalent of turning over 1.36 tons of soil per acre per year.

Additionally, their tunnels provide needed channels for air and water to access the roots of those plants and trees. If that were not enough, their waste products and the food products they scavenge add to the fertility of the soil. These actions by ants have been determined to be superior to those provided by earthworms. Some human cultures introduce ants to their agricultural fields for just this purpose. It doesn’t hurt that these ants prey upon the pests that feed upon their crops. 

Whenever the health of any ecosystem is evaluated, ant diversity is always a factor. Ants are at the base of the food chain. They are a source of protein for so many other organisms. Baby bears love to feed on them. Woodpeckers rely on them heavily. Turkeys, hummingbirds, coyotes, spiders (especially the wolf and jumping species), fish, lizards, snakes, dragonflies, toads, and so many other animals, eat ants as a source of sustenance.

On the flip side, ants prey on those species that plague us humans– ticks, termites, stink bugs, chiggers, caterpillars, housefly larvae, etc. They dispose of dead organisms that would otherwise amass in our own habitat. Ants move plant seeds to their nests, and some plants rely on this for seed dispersal. Some of the seeds are eaten; yet others germinate in the rich soil of their nests.

As of this evening, I am no longer in a tizzy. I never would have believed it, but I stand in awe of ants. They have been in existence for at least 140 million years and have established themselves into the ecological balance of nature. Human intervention has served to severely disrupt this balance, and we are seeing the effects. I am somewhat optimistic that maybe that balance may someday be reattained. And, I am optimistic, also, that, one of these days, I will be able to identify all of the fascinating ants that are scouring my yard. 

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Contributor Burt Glover became an accidental naturalist during his earliest childhood days exploring the dirt roads, backyards, polo field and barns of the Magnolia-Knox-Mead neighborhood of 1950s Aiken. Birds are his first love, and he can identify an impressive range by song alone. He asserts that he is an observer, not an expert, on the topics of his writings, which range from birds, box turtles, frogs and foraging, to wasps, weeds, weather and beyond.