Red Imported Fire Ant

The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, was inadvertently introduced into the United States early in the past century and has spread rapidly throughout the South and other areas. Current estimated costs of control, medical treatment and damage to property in the United States alone is greater than $6 billion annually. Current methods of control have done little to alleviate the rapid spread and enormous population buildups of this invasive pest ant. New methods of control of the fire ant will likely rely on knowledge of the natural enemies of the ant, including known predators, parasites and pathogens. UGA entomologists conducted a survey of the effects of three naturally occurring RNA viruses on nine fitness-related traits of colony-founding queens and their colonies. They detected significant differences between infected and uninfected queens for several of these traits, suggesting that manipulation of viral loads in the field may lead to novel biological control strategies for this pest.