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Fire Ants and Native Herps
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by Sheldonsherps on September 10, 2003
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I do not live down south but I worked in the Everglades for a couple of years when I lived in Florida. I did a lot of snake hunting and it seemed all the good spots were occupied by fire ants. I was just wondering if they have any impact or will possibly have in the future on our native herps?
Thanks,
Sheldon
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RE: Fire Ants and Native Herps
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by Chris_Harper on September 10, 2003
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Absolutely! Fire ants are implicated in the decline of many species -- virtually any that lay eggs beneath or inside of hollow or rotting logs. The southern hognose for instance is considered extinct in Alabama - most biologists blame the fire ant. I'm sure other people can give you a list of impacted species. In particular, go to the SREL website and ask Whit Gibbons if you want to know more. www.uga.edu/srel
~CH
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RE: Fire Ants and Native Herps
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by Snakeman1982 on September 15, 2003
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Hey Sheldon,
Fire ants cause a lot of problems in the Everglades. Not only are they a nuisance to humans, like when you step on a nest and don't relize it until all of a sudden there are a hundred biting you, but they are a major ecological problem for eggs or new born herps especially. To add to what Chris was saying. They don't just destroy the eggs of animals in logs but also the ones on the banks of water. When I worked in the Everglades we had to keep a close eye on the alligators and softshell turtle females so that we could dig up their eggs within a few days of their being laid. Often if we were late then we would find thousands of ants completely destroying the nests. Usually the ants would be so bad that we wouldn't be able to dig up the nest anyway. Although I haven't seen this first hand there is a lot of evidence of newly hatched or born snakes that have the misfortune of getting stuck near an ant hill and being bombarded by fireants and dying as a result because the snakes are too young to realize that they need to get away. Sadly the Everglades is no longer a good place to live if you are a native herp. Between the lack of water, introduced animals (such as Cuban Treefrogs), and horrible drivers that don't care about the environment they are driving through, the Everglades is not prestine anymore.
Fire ants have made it all the way into southern Oklahoma, if not a little further. Although I do believe the ones we have here were introduced into Texas, they hurt just as bad. I know this because I almost always herp in sandals and always know when I step on an ant hill. They also cause a lot of damage to wildlife in southern Oklahoma aswell but probably not near as much as in the Everglades except a few places I have visited.
Personally the mosquitos are a lot worse for humans during the summer than ants ever dreamed of but I am sure that the egg-laying wildlife thinks otherwise. In the big cypress swamps of Florida the ants have taken over but in the mangrove and reed islands of the Everglades they don't appear to have taken them completely over. Many of the alligators in the ten thousand islands area and the coastal swamps hatch alligators in excellent condition so we left them alone. But the others we would have to get out and incubate them until they hatched. No one knows an exact percentage but I would say that a great portion of the Florida egg-laying reptiles lose their nests to fire ants. Bottomline is that I have personally watched fireants destroy reptilian nests and they are a huge problem to native reptiles in the Everglades.
Robert C. Jadin
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