Having lived most of my life with the fire ant, I am wondering how much of the US they've infested. I hadn't been able to locate any data on this and just figured you guys could post your general location and whether these horrible little creatures have made their presence known.

Fire ants have also invaded Australia.

See link below for more details:

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fireants/

Thanks for the links.

Safari_Hunter-Do whatever you can to keep them under control. Early on, officials said the fire ant had no affect on wildlife, which has proven to be absolutely wrong. HAd state and federal agencies acted promptly, the spread would have been minimized or even eliminated, but now it's far too late to do anything about them.

Bobby Tomek,

The fire ants were detected quite early on and the government is spending alot of time and money trying to eradicate them. So far they have not really spread out of control and seem localized aroud the city of Brisbane.

My father is convinced that the decline in Quail populations in Mississippi are directly linked to the advancement of Fireants. Since Quail nest and hatch on the ground, he thinks that the ants attack the young birds and kill most of the chicks.

Perforator,
I happen to agree in part with your father. I've done a lot of time in fire ant country (Savannah River Site, SC), and I know how they kill.

However, quail are doing poorly everywhere - here in Iowa for example, where there are no fire ants. Locals seem to think that turkeys hunt them down and kill them. And deer too.

The best guess seems to be that there are a number of different factors (though turkey and deer are probably not among them), that are responsible and you cannot just pin the blame on one thing like the fire ants. Although, I don't know how anything wild can survive those things.

Brent

Having been involved in some quail research while a graduate student in the early 1990s and keeping in touch with wildlife researchers over the years I have a comment or two on fire ants and quail decline.

The concensus seems to be that fire ants are "a" factor in the decline of quail; however, they are not the "limiting" factor for quail. Poor quality quail habitat is. There has been a huge reduction in the amount of prescribed burning; loss of small scale farming and fence rows; increased size of farm fields, pesticide use, and "clean" farming; conversion of pastures to non-native grasses such as fescue, coastal bermuda, and bahia; rebound in the numbers of avian predators; and reduction in trapping resulting in increases in mammalian predators.

If you give quail annually, or semi-annually, burned woodlands or grasslands that are interspersed with proper food plots, disced roadways, brushy nesting/cover areas, and water sources they can do quite well even in the face of fire ants.

I moved from the Texas gulf coast to the northern panhandle a couple of years ago and to my great delight, they have not made it here yet. My dad owned a farm near Schulenberg so I know where Shiner is (home of the best beer brewery in the world), and when I was a kid in the 60s there was a lot more quail there than now. I've always assumed the decline was due to fire ants, but maybe there's other factors. I do know that I took my son deer hunting on his place last November. We found a good place to sit behind some brush and in less than 5 minutes we were both covered by the little red bastards.

McInnis,

I grew up very close to the Schulenberg area and still live there today. Redlander flat nailed it as to what happened to the quail population in this area. The decline happened in the late 60's to early 70's. Coastal Bermuda was king and weed spray along with fertilizer was cheap. Now the tide is slowing changing. Some people still use weed spray in hayfields but don't spray the whole place anymore. Bullfrogs started showing up again in local tanks a couple of years ago. It's easy to blame fireants but the blame has to be laid at the feet of the landowners who destroyed the habitat.

On the Shiner beer. Growing up we rated it at slightly above horse urine. That was some nasty stuff. How it became a premium beer I'll never know. It had to be shrewd marketing.

One big benefit from the fireants is the elimination of ticks and chiggers or as we called them red bugs. I think I'd rather have the fireants.

Shinerbock - the Leinenkugles of TX. Same thing. Chippewa River Water is NOT something to brag about in Wisconsin.


I'll take ticks and chiggers over fire ants any day.

Brent

OK, guys, how did you luck into having no chiggers? They are as thick here as ever. The ticks have been absolutely minimal, but the chiggers, well.....they still give me grief if I go out without being prepared.

Redlander, You are quite correct with your list of limiting factors on Mr. Bobwhite. I used to work with some habitat restoration for them and to that, I would add one more thing. All that burning and sloppy farming used to take place on A HUGE PART OF THE LANDSCAPE in the Southeast and it never will again. From the time of European settlement till about the '70's, we had somewhat artificially high populations of Bobwhites. It was no problem for my dad and a couple of buddies to kill thirty or more in an afternoon without dogs in the late 1930's around Russellville, AR.

As to the original topic, we have fireants as far north as Little Rock in Arkansas and maybe further. It is easy to haul 'em somewhere with a muddy truck driven in and out of fireant country. A cold winter in Ark will knock 'em back for a year or two. Merg

So M16, you don't really like Shiner beer but you don't mind fireants (at least as much as chiggers and ticks). Just one question:

If you could choose between Catherine Zeta-Jones and Roseanne Barr, which one would you take?

quote:

Originally posted by M16:
McInnis,
On the Shiner beer. Growing up we rated it at slightly above horse urine. That was some nasty stuff. How it became a premium beer I'll never know. It had to be shrewd marketing.

This is not the first time I heard this about Shiner.Having not grown up in Texas when I still drank beer I would buy Shiner.What really cracked me up was a few years back at the Houston Safari Club convention they did not have Shiner.When I got out to S.C.I. a week late it was a premium beer.

quote:

If you could choose between Catherine Zeta-Jones and Roseanne Barr, which one would you take?

If only all questions were so easy.
Roseanne is like a Shiner Beer. Flat, fat, and domestic....easy to find.
Catherine on the other hand is like a "Hinny-kin" Imported, perky, and harder to come by.

Have you seen the Levitra commericals where if you have an erection that lasts over four hours you should seek medical attention. IF that happened to me Catherine had better seek medical attention.

The fire ant posts remind me of a story about my mother (rest her soul) She was dove hunting on our place one opening day. We always had a bunch of Doc.s and judges and that sort of people who could not hit a dove. Well, mom was standing under a pine tree just down from one of our distinguished jurist when the fire ants started up her leg, She started shucking clothes faster that Gipsy Rose Lee and said to the judge, I hope you don't mind, but fire ants take presedent to modesty, He very gallantly helped her brush off the ants and said that he had not had that much fun on a dove shoot since he was seventy. There after they laughed every time the saw each other.
I don't think fire ants have anything to do with the decilne in quail, its those damn satilites. Eversince Spudnick quail have been dieing off. Maybe its alian abduction. Now when bird dogs go missing too maybe we will have a clue.
Have a good weekend and stay cool.
(Momma wern't no Chatherine Zeta Jones, but She sure as hell wern't Roseanne the commi Barr either. She was just s good old girl.)
Judge Sharpe

OK, guys. Not to hijack or nothin' but here's the Shiner story. The Spoetzel Brewery was the only brewery in the US known to operate continuosly throughout prohibition. Some Feds showed up early to close it down and the good Germans suggested they go somewhere else. For whatever reason, that was that. By the 60s and 70s it was in serious decline and Shiner was indeed the lowest of the low in reputation. In Austin when most pitchers were $1.50 or $1.75, Shiner was a buck. There was a bar called the ScoPro Lounge and if you penned your scholastic probation letter on the board a pitcher was $.75 until it expired. .

The marketing dude that made Corona (now there's some shit beer for you; many Mexicans wouldn't drink it)so popular decided he wanted his own brand and he stumbled upon the Spoetzel Brewery as they were about to go tits-up. They hadn't brewed beer in years. They were surviving by contract bottling wine coolers for other companies.

He bought the place and found some of the old brewers and the elder brewmaster, poured over various recepies the firm had from the "old days" and Shiner Bock was born. Completely different beer then the Shiner Dark we used to drink at the ScoPro. Ooops....

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.