NEWBERRY COUNTY — If you feel you have noticed an unusual amount of fire ant hills around lately you’re, well, sort of right.
“There’s probably not more fire ants now than there have been. I think the numbers are pretty stable,” said Dr. Tim Davis, a Richland County-based Clemson Extension Agent. “One of the things that we do know is that when we get a lot of rain, which obviously we had, fire ants will build their colonies up a little higher to control the moisture in the colony itself and so they actually become more visible than they have been.”
He explained that oppositely, when conditions are hot and dry, the mounds will appear visibly flatter allowing the ants to regulate both temperature and moisture.
And how might such comparatively unintelligent creatures accomplish such a feat in engineering?
“That’s the way they’re programmed, they’re like little robots,” Davis said. “It’s all controlled genetically.”
Although fire ants thrive all across the American South, and are spreading fast northward, they are actually not native to this part of the world.
Texas A & M AgriLife Extension reports fire ants were unintentionally imported to the United States in the 1930s when the insects stowed away to the port of Mobile, Ala., inside the soil used for ships’ ballasts.
Their area of origin in South America operates on a flood/drought cycle accounting for their evolutionary programming.
“It’s one of the largest wetland areas in the world so they’re very adapted to deal with floods and moisture,” Davis said.
In times of flooding a colony of fire ants will intertwine themselves to form a giant ball containing potentially tens of thousands of ants in order to float and drift until dry land is reached.
A perennial opponent in the unpopularity contest with fire ants are mosquitoes, set to make their 2016 debut with warmer temperatures just around the corner.
While it is commonly believed a cold winter will freeze off the next year’s crop, many mosquitoes simply become inactive during colder months while others die in the fall already having laid winter-proof eggs which will hatch when flooded in warmer months.
DHEC reports at least 61 separate species of mosquito can be found in South Carolina and that only female mosquitoes bite in order to gain nutrients to develop eggs.
And after hibernating through the winter, in desperate need of nutrients, the females annually have a positive feeding frenzy.
Mosquitoes are able to locate us in many ways including the carbon dioxide we breathe out, our sweat as well as scented cosmetic items.
The relationship with mosquitoes and temperature is warmer weather causes their life cycles to accelerate and therefore multiply faster.
To protect yourself from bites and potentially virus transmission DHEC recommends using a repellent which contains one of the following four chemicals: DEET, Picaridin, Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus or IR3535.
Viruses that South Carolina mosquitoes have been known to carry include West Nile and Eastern equine encephalitis.