Fire Ants and Quail
Over the past several decades a number of programs to restore our quail population have been recommended, but it seems to me that unless we include all of the reasons for our quail loss, these programs will fail. That is why we can’t ignore anything that is contributing to our diminishing quail population, and I think we are ignoring a major part of the problem. Sometimes part of the solution to a problem may be literally right under our noses, and this time it is right under our feet. That’s right; and the problem is so ordinary that we ignore it. I’m sure, even if you rarely even get out of your manicured yard, you have seen mounds of fire ants. They are literally in my back yard, and I have chemically treated dozens of their mounds in the past. I have spotted multiple fire ant mounds along the roadway where I walk, but we tend to dismiss this rapid increase in these insects as inconsequential. However, they may be one of the main causes of the decline in Arkansas quail numbers.
Red fire ants are an invasive species, which has spread rapidly throughout the south, and only recently have they become a problem in Arkansas. However, fire ants are already a serious problem in Texas where they have multiplied to the point where they are a major factor in the rapid decline of Texas’s quail.
A quail’s nest with multiple eggs is where the fire ants wreak havoc on the quail. Fire ants can’t penetrate the shell of quail eggs, but as soon as the eggs in the nest began to hatch, the quail chicks are the most venerable. And if that first hatching is detected by a scout ant, and the ants swarm the nest nearly all the chicks will all be killed as they hatch or be stung to the point where they can’t keep up with the mother quail and die. A study made in Texas points directly to the problem. It shows an area with the most fire ant mounds has the greatest drop in the population of quail.
Here in Arkansas, we have seen the number of fire ant mounds grow exponentially, and I believe there is a direct connection to our drop in the quail population. Several years back I had a good covey of quail in and around our sparsely wooded backyard of 30 or so acres. When we moved in there was a covey of 15 to 20 quail. Over the past 20 years the habitat hasn’t changed, but the number of quail has dropped within the past 15 years until they have disappeared. We have seen several minor changes during this period, but nothing as great as the appearance of dozens of fire ant mounds. I’m certainly not ignoring the problem, and every month or so in spring, summer, and fall, I knock off the top of every fire ant mound I can find and put an anti-fire ant chemical on it. However, it seems other beds pop up almost as quickly as I kill a bed, and I shudder to think of how many fire ant beds are in the area where I walk several times a week, where fire ant mounds are in the road rights-of-way almost touching the pavement, I can only guess that thousands of mounds dot the grassy pipeline rights-of-ways, which are the natural habitat for quail .
If we don’t get the fire ant situation under control, all the habit enhancements and restocking of quail will just be feeding fire ants. Research in Texas has shown that quail are less abundant in Texas counties that have been infested with fire ants for many years, and quail densities were nearly four times greater in the southeast before the invasion of fire ants (Allen et al. 1995 & Allen et al. 2000). In these studies, the presence of fire ants was able to explain up to 75% of annual variation in bobwhite abundance.
It seems to me that if we are going to restore our quail, multiple actions need to be taken, and the reduction of fire ants in our fair State should be right up there with restoring quail habitat and restocking apex predators. If we
treat restoring our quail as a multi-task endeavor, we can steadily see an increase in our quail population, but if we concentrate on just one factor, we won’t solve the problem. I have noted below the contributing factors to our quail loss, and if we consider the loss of our quail a multi-task problem, we can solve it. However, if we just concentrate on one part of the problem, we are almost guaranteed to fail. None of the actions below are going to work unless we include the rest of the points.
The most obvious is when restocking quail in good habitat areas, the grounds should be surveyed to spot and remove any fire ant mounds.
The Game and Fish Commission should actively promote the purchase of anti-fire ant chemicals as part of their hunting and fishing license renewal. Even donating chemicals to those who will apply it to the fire ant beds. Several hundred thousand hunters applying fire ant chemicals to mounds would make a huge difference.
The Game and Fish Commission should recognize all of the factors that contribute to the disappearance of Arkansas quail, and along with free fire ant chemical, issue a moratorium on the killing of apex predators, which includes suspending the bear season until the bear population is at least 10,000 statewide (it was estimated to be 50,000 when we were called the “Bear State) and put a $10/ tail bounty on feral hogs. The original 1920s $10 bounty on Apex Predators was a major factor in eliminating Apex Predators, which contributed to the loss of our quail. Restoring the apex predators would not only reduce the feral hog population, but it would impact the scavenger animals, which eat the quail eggs and chicks.
Our efforts to restore the quail in Arkansas will take a concentrated effort to attack the problem in multiple ways, and unless we recognize all the factors involved, we won’t ever hunt quail in Arkansas again.