It's a red, aspirin-size invertebrate with a bad attitude, and it's coming soon to a yard near you.
And if you think a wee bug can't inflict enough pain and irritation to keep you from playing in the grass barefoot or gardening without gloves, think again.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Friday February 19, 1999 Home Edition Southern California Living Part E Page 4 View Desk 1 inches; 26 words Type of Material: Correction
Fire ants--A story in the Feb. 11 Southern California Living on fire ants incorrectly stated their whereabouts. They have arrived in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties only.
Red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta, have arrived in Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside counties as recently as fall.
Experts believe they may have been accidentally brought in via potted plants to local nurseries and then circulated into housing developments. Nasty little insects whose native homeland is South America, these ants have had the biological good fortune to have few, if any, natural enemies in the northern hemisphere, and their powers of survival and expansion are impressive.
To the uninitiated, imported fire ants are the enemy. They kill native ants and swarm the eyes, nose, mouths and throats of newborn ground-nesting wildlife like quail, deer and rabbits, injecting their burning poison and inflicting unimaginable misery.
They make it impossible for children to play unfettered in backyards, and camping in fire ant country is tolerated by only the hardy few.
The only upside of fire ants is really a strange twist of fate. In killing native insects they inadvertently destroy insects that homeowners and farmers alike consider pests, bugs like flea larvae, chinch bugs, cockroach eggs and boll weevils. Still, I'd take fleas over fire ants any day.
Fire ant mounds can pop up anywhere, although you're most likely to find them in well-irrigated places like lawns, flower beds, vegetable gardens and at the bases of trees.
Typically their mounds don't get any higher than a foot and a half, but they may also be nearly flat, particularly during dry spells.
The soil of a fire ant mound looks slightly sifted and grows in size after it rains as the ants raise the mounds to keep their eggs and larvae away from the water zone. This is also when mated queens leave home to begin building new colonies.
The danger to kids and ground-nesting birds is part of the reason experts like Bart Drees, coordinator for Texas' fire ant management program, said, "Our best offense is education. Learn what a mound looks like and show them to your kids."
But you'll need to do more than that if you want to keep your property fire ant free. You'll need to be vigilant about inspecting for the ants and, according to Drees, use a two-step approach.
