The good ol’ days opened the door to fire ants
Like you, I watched in shock and horror as the graphic film footage dominated national news stories that were coming out of Houston, Texas, during Hurricane Harvey’s massive assault.
In particular, I was especially struck by the image of writhing masses of ants floating past the videographer’s camera lens. These were no ordinary ants, however. Instead, they were those ants that pack a very painful bite — fire ants.
Fire ants are native to Brazil. Before the 1930s, fire ants did not live in Oklahoma.
I am not one of those people who waxes longingly for the return of the good old days. In many respects, the good old days were not so good. A good “for example” is the lax rules and regulations with which we Americans had to comply in the 1930s. There was very limited government oversight on what could be shipped into our country.
Well, guess what? Because of this devil-maycare attitude, our Texas friends now have to battle fire ants. Obviously, nobody purposely brought biting ants into the United States back in 1930s, but casual agricultural inspections back in those days allowed an opportunity for these insect pests to gain entry into our part of the world.
Fire ants are no stranger to the impacts of flooding. In their Brazilian home, the mighty Amazon River regularly overflows its banks and turns the surrounding countryside into a massive lake. The fire ants escape drowning by converting their colony into a floating life raft. Then, they go along with the current until they bump into dry land or a tree whose top is above the water.
That is what I witnessed when I saw the film footage of Houston and Hurricane Harvey. The floodwaters posed but a minimal inconvenience for the pesky fire ants.
Some regions of southeastern Oklahoma have had to do battle with fire ants. Resourceful scientists have recently been experimenting with releases of the natural enemies of these ants. Phorid flies attack the fire ants. It is a biological control strategy that is pretty effective, with no unwanted side effects on other creatures.
Of course, I kind of wish Americans had been a little more diligent about doing their jobs back in the 1930s. Today’s generation is having to expend a lot of our treasure just to wage war on a most unwelcome visitor: the fire ant.
The good old days? I think not!
— Neil Garrison, NewsOK Contributor
Neil Garrison was the longtime naturalist at a central Oklahoma nature center.