How, when, and why were fire ants imported to the U.S. and where do they occur at the moment?
First of all, several kinds of fire ants are native to Texas. When people ask this question, they really mean imported fire ant species. Apparently the introductions of pest fire ants were accidental. Perhaps the soil of potted plants or ballast on ships arriving from South America to Mobile, Alabama contained invicta nests. Exactly when is not certain. There were invasions by two pest fire ant species. The first, the black imported fire ant from Argentina (S. richteri), was barely established and spreading when the red imported fire ant (S. invicta) arrived and proceeded to shove aside its cousin (which now survives in Mississippi and western Georgia). The original arrivals were probably in the 1920s or before. Professor E.O. Wilson, the famous ant biologist at Harvard, was first to discover the invasion while he was still a budding high school entomologist in Alabama. See the most recent USDA distribution map (248k) by county and time of arrival. If you live in the northern U.S. wher
First of all, several kinds of fire ants are native to Texas. When people ask this question, they really mean imported fire ant species. Apparently the introductions of pest fire ants were accidental. Perhaps the soil of potted plants or ballast on ships arriving from South America to Mobile, Alabama contained invicta nests. Exactly when is not certain. There were invasions by two pest fire ant species. The first, the black imported fire ant from Argentina (S. richteri), was barely established and spreading when the red imported fire ant (S. invicta) arrived and proceeded to shove aside its cousin (which now survives in Mississippi and western Georgia). The original arrivals were probably in the 1920s or before. Professor E.O. Wilson, the famous ant biologist at Harvard, was first to discover the invasion while he was still a budding high school entomologist in Alabama. See the most recent USDA distribution map (248k) by county and time of arrival. If you live in the northern U.S. wher
