Fire Ants
Betsy Levy (blevy@mail.utexas.edu)
Sat, 25 Apr 1998 10:53:11 -0500
This is directed toward any SANetters living in the south and coping with
fire ants. A friend and I were comparing notes recently and we have been
noticing certain things about fire ants. They seem to prefer barren soil --
planted thinly with small transplants, for instance, with plenty of bare
soil around - and they seem to actually attack the few plants in sparse
plantings, as if with the aim of destroying them. I've noticed them
crawling on the tender growing tips of bean plants, etc. Do fire ants do
this because they "farm" aphids, like other ants? Also, I've noticed them
attacking some vegetables - turnips, carrots, kale, eggplants - but not
others. Does anyone know why? If it was for sweet sap, why don't they
bother beets? Just curious.
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