ZOMBIE FIRE ANTS: Fly that controls ants may hold key to pest control

Lufkin Daily News ^ | May 13, 2009 | STEVEN ALFORD

[csvset]

A fly lays an egg inside an unsuspecting victim walking in the woods on a sunny day. Soon the egg matures and moves into the head of its prey, taking bodily control before turning the prey into a living zombie. Before the victim knows what's happening, its head pops off and a new fly emerges, off to find another host.

Sound like a plot from a familiar horror movie? It is actually real — a new species of a fire ant-controlling bug is being introduced into East Texas — through a joint effort of the University of Texas and Texas A&M. It may just be the answer to stopping a familiar pest that threatens people and livestock.

"This is all part of a nationwide effort to stop the spread of imported fire ants," said Scott Ludwig, pest management specialist with Texas A&M's AgriLife program in Overton. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been working with a number of states to introduce these flies. We've released three species here in Texas alone."

The new type of phorid fly is a tiny parasite preying solely on red imported fire ants, which Ludwig said are more than likely the ones found here in East Texas.

Scientists theorize the ants came to the southern United States by way of Mobile, Ala. after dirt from South America was shipped there to be used for a construction project. The ants spread out across the warm southern states and have been stinging ankles ever since.

The impact of red imported fire ants in Texas is estimated to be $1.2 billion annually, according to the Texas Imported Fire Ant Research and Management Project, at Texas A&M.

"The damage caused by these ants can be pretty severe," Ludwig said. "They can mess up wiring in appliances, attack ground-nesting birds and take over territory from native ants."

To kill the pests, the newly introduced fly lays an egg inside a foraging fire ant's thorax. After about 10 days the egg hatches. As it matures the larvae moves into the head of the ant, controlling the ant's actions.

"We're not sure how they control the ant, but these ants have a pretty simple nervous system," Ludwig said.

The parasite forces the ant to wander away from its colony, where the fly eventually becomes fully grown — killing the ant as it emerges through its head.

Other species of the flies previously only attacked ants in disturbed mounds. The new species, Pseudacteon obtusus, will prey on ants as they forage for food. Fire ants can sense the presence of the flies and will greatly cut down on the number and distance of foraging trips, giving other ants the chance to survive in the same area, Ludwig said.

As promising as it sounds, scientists combating the fire ants don't want the public to think this is the end-all, be-all cure. It's only the first step.

"This is not a silver bullet. It's going to take a lot of efforts to stop these ants," Ludwig said. "This is just the beginning."

For tips on dealing with fire ants and more information about the new flies, visit Texas A&M's fire ant Web site: http://fireants.tamu.edu/ or visit the University of Texas' fire ant Web site: http://web.biosci.utexas.edu/fireant/index.html.

[rintense]

I saw this on the discovery channel a few years ago. They actually had HD video of a zombie ant's head popping off. Nature always finds a way. That said, I am never a fan of introducing a non-indigenous species to control the indigenous. Ecosystems work for a reason. When scientists artificially try to create one, bad things happen. Who knows what affects this will have.

And yes, I know all about fire ants. I grew up in Texas. I'd follow my brothers out into the fields as they put M-80s down the ant hills.

[RandallFlagg]

Anyone ever seen the movie, “Mimic?”

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See post # 8 for the video link, tip of the hat to BufordP

[JoeProBono]

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Mimic

Synopsis: When a cockroach-spread plague threatens to decimate the child population of New York City, evolutionary biologist Susan Tyler and her research associates rig up a species of "Judas" bugs and introduce them into the environment, where they will "mimic" the diseased roaches and infiltrate their grubby habitats.

So far so good...until the bugs keep on evolving and learn to mimic their next prey--humans.

Noirish, dazzling production work ensconces reliably creepy bug-related thrills.

Based on the short story by Donald A. Wolheim. [

[eggman]

They've been doing similar pest control for years with incarsia wasps. They lay their eggs in the whitefly nymphs and can reduce whitefly infestations in greenhouses to almost zero. As the host species population decreases there are fewer places for the wasp/fly parasite to lay it's eggs so the next generation is smaller also.

[rintense]

Neat video, but I saw one that was filmed down in the Amazon. It was amazing.

[snarks_when_bored]

Last year I put one bare knee down in the front yard while doing a bit of yardwork. Within about 10 seconds, my knee and upper thigh were covered with fire ants. Before I was able to brush them all off, I had received 53 individual bites. Two months later, each bite was still visible.

Them's evil little critters...

[blam]

"Don't know what kind of ants these are but I found several big mounds just swarming with them in the Michigan woods the other day."

To far north for Fire Ants. They can't survive the winters there.

[BigBlueJon]

Doesn’t anyone realize that this is how the Zombie Apocalypse starts??? It’s only a matter of time before the flies mutate because their taste for fire ants can’t be quenched and they start moving up the food chain. Humans will soon be infected by Fire Ant Fly Hybrids and the zombies will rise.

The only fortunate thing right now is that the heads pop off the ants and the fly moves on. Until it mutates, zombie heads will be exploding all over the place and everybody knows you have to kill zombies by making them headless.

I probably should have had coffee first before responding to this post.

[Arrowhead1952]

I use ORTHO too, but stand UPWIND when applying it. It stinks like nothing else I have ever smelled.

[TheOldLady]

Somewhere in this story or maybe the other thread is the information that fire ants are not indigenous. They arrived here in a load of fill dirt from South America (don't ask me why they had to import dirt -- some union requirement undoubtably) without their natural predator, the phorid fly. That's why they're such a scourge here, and also why the universities are trying to introduce the fly.

Ah, here it is, from this thread:

"Scientists theorize the ants came to the southern United States by way of Mobile, Ala. after dirt from South America was shipped there to be used for a construction project."

Aren't you glad that they aren't natives after all?

And we really should find out why we're importing dirt. Importing dirt!!??!! I got ya dirt right heah.