(Very) O.T. - wild and crazy ants in South Florida. (If you lived here, you would understand why this stuff makes it into the newspaper).
Ants! A new nuisance of epidemic proportions ...
Monday, April 19, 1999
By RALF KIRCHER, Staff Writer
And there came out of the imported plants ants upon the earth. And it was
given that they not harm man, but that his household be tormented.
And the shape of Hank
Bos was like unto a
warrior prepared unto
battle; and on his head
was as it were safety
goggles and a
respirator. And he had
a wand, as it were a
wand of aluminum that
sprayed Talstar on the
earth surrounding the
Lyles' Park Shore
home.
And Bob Belmont of
Belmont Pest Control peered over the shoulder of his warrior, Bos, as he
sprayed pesticide to hold back the latest bane of Florida pest control experts.
South Florida is nearing not the biblical day of the locust, but rather the ant,
the white-footed ant.
Introduced to Dade County in 1986 by way of plants imported from eastern
Asia, the white-footed ant has spread to at least 10 Florida counties. The exotic
species poses no threat to humans, but the ants' sheer numbers, reproductive
capabilities and resistance to traditional pest-control tactics make them a
nuisance of what could amount to epidemic proportion. Cases of white-footed
ant infestation began appearing in Collier County within the past two years, and
a growing number of reports has pest control companies worried.
"It's one of those we call the insect of the future," said Joe Homich, technical
director of Ace Pest Control. "They're not a threat inasmuch as disease
carriers; they may not be a threat to people, but they sure are a nuisance."
More than a nuisance,
white-footed ants are
spreading. During the
first week of April, two
more of Belmont's
1,500 customers
reported cases. Belmont
says if you multiply that
out among Collier
County's 83 pest
control companies,
from 25 to 30 new
reports are popping up
each week.
"This is the most
serious invader I've
dealt with," Belmont
said, reflecting on his
21 years in the pest
control business. "A lot of people don't believe it until they see the numbers."
Ferris Lyle has seen the numbers and they are hers, much to her dismay. The
12-year Naples resident noticed the one-eighth-inch to one-fourth-inch
invaders in her spare bathroom in November. Then in the kitchen.
"They started coming in the kitchen then gravitated to the other end of the
house," she said. The ants poured out of electrical sockets in her master
bathroom. "The wall plate was covered with them."
Initial bombardments by Belmont Pest Control helped only moderately.
"They just keep coming back," Lyle said. "They're just little spontaneous things
- they just do what they want."
For Bob Belmont, the predicament has been both aggravating and interesting -
interesting from a purely entomological standpoint. As one who holds his
degree in entomology - the study of insects, Belmont can't help but hold a
certain fascination for the critters he's trying to kill.
Living in colonies of as many as 1 million individuals, white-footed ants are at
first glance pretty easy to kill. That many ants, and a size 9 shoe can squash its
fair share. And pesticides certainly can "kill ants dead," as the slogan goes, but
these natives of Japan can breed. Boy, can they breed - enough to oust bunny
rabbits from the adage.
About half of all white-footed ants are queens and thus capable of
reproduction. Most of Florida's 220 or so ant species have only one or two
queens to a colony. Worker ants go out - say on your kitchen countertop -
feed, and return to regurgitate their meal in what amounts to tax day in the ant
system of royalty.
Ant baits devised to fight invading Pharaoh ants (the little brown sugar ants
that advance in columns around your kitchen) in the early 1980s have
traditionally kept ant colonies at bay: The queen dies from eating poisoned
regurgitated food, and soon thereafter dies the rest of the colony.
But being a democratic ant, just about any old white-footed ant can go off and
form its own colony. Pest control companies are finding the only way to
control populations is regular spraying of insecticide.
"If we diagnose it's white-footed ants in the beginning, we put the customer on
a monthly schedule," said Dennis Ryan, an inspector-salesman for Truly
Nolen. Normally, it's a quarterly spraying schedule.
"It's a super-threatening ant, so we have to spray this," Belmont said of the
substance Bos was spraying the perimeter of the Lyles' house. He's trying a
chemical known as Talstar, a new pesticide that lasts longer than Diazinon or
Dursban, two commonly used chemicals that are available at home centers. "I
don't like to use chemicals if I don't have to. Because of our treatments, the
last couple of months you don't see anything. There's a lot of natural soil fauna
knocked out by this product."
Indeed, there were no other ants of any species strolling around the pavement
of the Lyles' home the day of Bos' treatment. And no white-footed ants
presented themselves for comment.
"I found one crawling around the kitchen counter," Lyle said of earlier that
morning, as she held out a tiny corpse stuck to a piece of Scotch tape. The
ant's cream-colored legs from which it derives its name were nowhere to be
found. "That can't be good."
While the presence of the white-footed ants isn't good for the homeowner,
native ants play an essential role in the ecosystem, said Mark Deyrup, an
entomologist at the Archibald Research Station in Lake Placid. Native ants
control insects on plants, help plants reproduce, provide a food source to other
insects and birds and help convey nutrients into the soil.
It was Deyrup who in 1990 was the entomologist to identify the white-footed
ant. Appropriately, he was attending a meeting on exotic species' impact in the
South Florida ecosystem. Deyrup noticed a number of ants foraging through
his doughnut crumbs. He studied the ants and later identified them as
Technomyrmex albipes, the white-footed ant.
"There they were, attending the meeting," he said. "For a couple of years after
that, it was hard to find them. Then they started popping up everywhere."
Deyrup tracked the ants to Homestead, where they had been reported but not
identified as early as 1986. To date they have been confirmed in 10 counties
including Collier, but not yet Lee County.
Deyrup said there are 53 species of exotic ants in the state.
"Florida has the largest fauna of exotic ants in the world," Deyrup said. "Even
as we speak, more could be setting up shop."
Deyrup attributes this unusually large number of exotic ants to a number of
conditions, including the warm weather and the fact that the native selection of
ant species is not as great or varied as other similar climates. But mostly,
Deyrup says exotic ants tend toward disturbed areas.
"We're rolling out the red carpet for exotic ants," he said.
Of those 53 species, about a dozen are considered pests, "headed, of course,
by the fire ant," Deyrup said.
"There are two kinds of pests: the kinds that do something injurious and those
that just bother us - things that just run around the patio," he said. "(The
white-footed ant) doesn't do much else than be there. You don't pour your
Frosted Flakes and see a bunch dog-paddling in the milk."
But they might cover the floor.
"It's just so aggravating," Belmont said. "We have some $2 (million) to $3
million (houses) that have them all over the floor."
Whereas Belmont sees the number of white-footed ant infestations increasing
dramatically in upcoming years, Deyrup is slightly more scientifically guarded
in his prediction.
"Sometimes we get pests that just kind of explode on the scene and then
disappear," Deyrup said. "(White-footed ants) could sort of fade away."
Until then, pest control companies are going to have their hands full. Ace's
Homich says homeowners will have to fight alongside pest control companies.
"Pest control is often an alliance between people and the pest control
company," Homich said. "You have to do your part. If we ask you to cut back
your overhanging plants, you need to do it if you expect to have pest control."
With cockroaches, Homich said, his company can control them with simple
spraying, and a customer doesn't have to do much of anything. But in the case
of a pest like white-footed ants, "Customer cooperation becomes much more
critical."
Part of that cooperation, Belmont said, comes from trimming limbs and
shrubbery away from the house, so that foliage doesn't touch the structure and
provide a bridge for the ants. He said it is essential to control landscape plant
pests like aphids, scales and mealy bugs that produce the honeydew on which
ants feed. Belmont also recommends sealing any holes in the house - around
spigots, television cables or electrical wires, for instance.
And for now, until the pest control industry finds a permanent solution, Lyle
tries to put her ant problem in the best light.
"Fortunately they're not a large ant," she said.
© 1999 Naples Daily News. All rights reserved.
Published in Naples, Florida. |
