Approaches Toward Possible Pest Management of the Imported Fire Ants

Abstract

A management strategy for the imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren and S. richteri Forel, presents conceptual and implemental problems. Management strategies for social insects other than beneficial species have not yet been achieved. Such strategies are assumed to be possible since populations of social insects, like those of nonsocial insects, are subject to natural biotic and abiotic constraints. The work of Way (1953) in Tanzania, and of Room (1971), Majer (1972), and Leston (l973) in Ghana, indicate that ant populations can be increased or reduced by manipulating various ecological factors. There is also a considerable body of information by European workers concerning their attempts to translocate and enhance populations of various ant species of the Formica rufa Linne group as protective biological control agents against forest insect pests. Thus background information which might be helpful in the development of management strategies for social insects such as fire ants is available.