I believe that many people have had the experience of being bitten by ants, don't look at that little bug, a bite can be swollen for half a day, itchy and painful.
Ordinary ants are actually not very lethal, but there are many types of ants, some ants are poisonous, and they will feel uncomfortable when they are bitten, especially red fire ants. Red fire ants are widely distributed, and the whole body looks red, compared with ordinary black ants, you can recognize them at a glance.
The basic structure of red fire ants, facing this ant needs to be cautious
Red fire ants are also very common in the mainland, but it is not a native ant, but an invader, this ant is not only painful to bite, but also extremely destructive, and it is also troublesome to prevent and control, very headache, but this creature has invaded 12 provinces on the mainland, and a nest of red fire ants can reach 300,000, so that the ecological environment in the southern region is facing a crisis of loss.
How scary red fire ants are
Red fire ants are a family of ants, fire ants, poisonous, native to South America, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions such as India, Africa, and Pacific Islands.
Red fire ants, like other ants, do not live long but produce huge eggs, female ants can lay eggs within 24 hours after mating, lay 10 to 15 eggs at a time, and hatch a new batch of ants within 10 hours. When the first eggs hatch, the female lays eggs again, this time laying 75 to 125 eggs.
The number of queen eggs laid by red fire ants should not be underestimated
It is reported that at its highest fertility, females can lay more than 800 to 1,000 eggs a day.
Since ants are social animals and build a nest and live with a large family, if you find a nest of red fire ants, it means that there may be 500,000 to 500,000 red fire ants inside.
The nest of red fire ants is easy to identify, I believe many people have seen it, it is a 30 to 50 cm diameter earthen bag, with multiple round holes or honeycomb holes for ants to enter and exit. As more and more new red fire ants grow, worker ants will continue to expand their nests, so the exposed anthills will also become larger and larger, and the nests will be easier to identify.
The nest of red fire ants is well recognized and the characteristics are very obvious
Ants have a strong foraging ability, eat without picky eating, red fire ants are no exception, from wild flowers and trees to human-grown crops, to insects and other animals, and even carrion, they can be full of food, the damage to plants is extremely strong.
Because their hometown is in the tropics, the heat tolerance of red fire ants is very high, and in the weather of more than 40 degrees, people and other animals are eager to stay in the water to relieve the heat, but they can continue to feed outdoors freely, even if the temperature of the soil reaches 50 degrees, it does not affect their actions at all.
According to this habit, red fire ants are naturally not resistant to low temperatures, and when the temperature reaches more than 10 degrees, worker ants can work steadily.
The worker ants of red fire ants mainly undertake the work of going out to forage
Therefore, after the red fire ant invaded the mainland, it was most common in Hainan, Taiwan, and the two broad regions. In 2004, red fire ants were first discovered in Taiwan Province, followed by many areas in Guangdong Province, then Hong Kong and Macao, and by 2006, the creature had been overcrowded in many southern provinces.
The red fire ant plague of the continent
In 2019, the mainland Ministry of Agriculture issued a notice that red fire ants were found in 12 provinces in the mainland, and in 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture monitored and found that the range of red fire ants has expanded a lot, and the area reported to have red fire ants invaded has doubled compared with 2016, and farmland, woodland, and even parks and green belts in cities have been found, which poses a certain danger to the outdoor activities of the people, maybe they will be bitten when they go out for a walk.
Beware of red fire ants in the grass when outdoors
After adapting to the southern part of the mainland, red fire ants began to gradually travel north, and a large number of red fire ants were also found in Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi and other places.
Because spring and autumn are the active period of red fire ants, many local governments have begun to uniformly control red fire ants. For example, Qingyuan and Shaoguan, Guangdong are town-based to fight the battle of red fire ants, Fujian Pingtan will take the prevention and control of red fire ants as a normalized epidemic, and Yingshan and Dechang counties in Sichuan have also held an epidemic survey of red fire ants after the temperature warms up in spring.
Many places on the mainland have launched a tough battle to control red fire ants
This shows how serious the flood of red fire ants is throughout the country. They are large in number, aggressive, and their ability to fight in groups is still very strong, and they are not afraid at all in the face of creatures larger than themselves, and they attack in groups, and do not talk about martial virtue at all.
Red fire ants have poisonous needles on their butts, and they are madly pricked when they encounter enemies, the key is that their poison needles are not disposable like bees, and they die if they are pricked, it can be used repeatedly, and while pricking while injecting venom into the enemy, as long as they are given enough time, I am afraid that elephants can be bitten to death by them.
The tail needle of red fire ants can release "venom", causing adverse reactions on human skin
If a person is pricked by red fire ants, the skin will immediately become pus under the action of venom. Generally speaking, the venom of red fire ants is not very harmful, and after being pricked, rinse with clean water, and swelling can be reduced after a few hours. But for people who love allergies and children with delicate skin, it is more troublesome, so pay special attention when encountering red fire ants.
It is worth mentioning that red fire ants not only have to attack foreign creatures and launch tantrums, but even ants of other genera and even the same kind in the next nest have to fight. What's more, they are invasive species on the continent and are more hostile to native organisms.
When the red fire ants fight, they are all not recognized by the six relatives
And the number of red fire ants in a family is too large, and the amount of food needed every day is also a lot, as long as it is a plant that is fancy by red fire ants, the place they pass is a mess.
For example, crops that have not yet reached the harvest season, as long as the red fire ants feel that they can eat, they will flock to it, first eat their own meals, and then take the endless food home, so that the farmers have worked hard for a while, all in vain.
Red fire ants also eat plants, causing serious damage to crops
Difficulty in controlling red fire ants
Of course, before the emergence of red fire ants, termites were the most difficult pests to control, and they fought in groups to bite furniture, houses and other wooden products out of large holes in a short time. It is difficult to get rid of termites that sneak into the home to destroy furniture, because spraying pesticides is harmful to humans.
After the red fire ant appears, termites have to bow down in front of it. The survival ability of ants is very strong, even if the nest is washed away by the water, they can quickly build another one, as long as it is not soaked in water for a long time, ants are difficult to drown in water.
Red fire ants have their own self-rescue methods when they encounter water, as long as they are not immersed in water for a long time, they will not die
Therefore, to control ant nests, the commonly used method outdoors is fire attack, but this method has little effect on red fire ants. Because their nests are built underground and extend in all directions, they feel the danger and quickly escape through another exit.
Burn a red fire ant nest, maybe not a single red fire ant killed, even if burned a wave, the female ant can quickly lay eggs and hatch new ants.
The anthills of red fire ants extend in all directions, and ants can easily escape
Therefore, to prevent and control red fire ants, we must start from daily living habits and focus on "prevention". For example, do not transport soil, plants, etc. from areas with red fire ants into areas without red fire ants, and do a good job of isolation like epidemic prevention. Places with red fire ants are cleaned up on the spot to prevent spread.
Of course, in addition to adhering to the above good habits, chemical and physical prevention and control are also very important, traditional water attack, fire attack can be used, and pesticide is also necessary.
Both chemical and physical control are important
In addition, the most scientific method is biological control, although red fire ants have no natural enemies, but disease control experts have found that parasitic ants, parasitic bees, twisted wingworms, and some mites have a lot of killing power on red fire ants. Placing these bugs in a place where red fire ants are present can get rid of them without harming plants or polluting the environment.
Another method is to use the foraging habit of red fire ants, put bait with pesticides, let the red fire ants eat it, and feed it to the queen, and cut the whole nest of ants from the source to remove the roots.
The release of bait with pesticides can also play a role in controlling red fire ants
It is reported that Guangzhou uses advanced technology to control red fire ants, and in 2022, the area where red fire ants occur has decreased by 62% compared with 2020. However, the prevention and control of red fire ants is a long-term battle, and the achievements cannot be taken lightly, and efforts must be increased to continue to eliminate harm.