Posts Tagged: ant
Strategic Placement of Ant Baits
Ants are one of the major seasonal pests around structures in California's urban environments. Pest...
New Avocado Pest
Red imported fire ant (RIFA), Solenopsis invicta, has been reported as a pest in Florida where the fire ants girdle young citrus trees (Diepenbrock) https://crec.ifas.ufl.edu/media/crecifasufledu/extension/extension-publications/2021/2021_jan_fireant.pdf Florida researchers found that RIFA girdled the trees and killed them. In the summer of 2022, we discovered newly planted avocado trees being girdled and killed in Riverside. Upon closer examination we discovered the girdling was from the activities of a fire ant. Dr. Dong-Hwan Choe, Professor of Extension – Entomologist at UC Riverside, identified it as Solenopsis sp. Figure 1 show the initial damage to an otherwise healthy avocado tree which weeks later was completely girdled and dead. Fire ants were controlled using a bait. This took 2 applications. Fire ant mound is evident in Figure 1B but is not the typical mound that is associated with fire ants so growers need to be watching for ant activity and treat proactively. The fire ants were very aggressive to both the tree and the people working the trees.
fire ant holes
fire ant girdle
Colony of Red Ants Roams the Bohart Museum of Entomology
A colony of red ants recently roamed the Bohart Museum of Entomology. They really weren't red...
UC Davis first-year entomology student Kat Taylor (in ant headgear) staffed the arts-and-crafts table at the Bohart Museum open house. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Five-year-old twins Lucas and Logan Cheuk of Woodland created these striking hats. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Esmeralda Myhre, 2, works on her art project. Her mother, Morgan Myhre, is a UC Davis senior majoring in entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis senior entomology major Morgan Myrhe adjusts the ant headgear on her son, Galileo, 5, while her daughter, Esmeralda, 2, watches. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis senior entomology major Morgan Myhre shows her daughter, Esmeralda, 2, some of the Bohart Museum's insect/spider tenants. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Doctoral Candidate Zachary Griebenow: Exit Seminar on April 19
Doctoral candidate Zachary Griebenow will present his exit seminar at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday,...
Zachary Griebelow (right) captained the UC Davis Entomology Games team that won the national championship at the 2022 Entomological Society of America meeting, held in Vancouver, British Columbia. With him (from left) are doctoral candidates Madison Hendrick, Jill Oberski and Erin "Taylor" Kelly. (Photo by Geoffrey Attardo, UC Davis faculty)
Fire Ants Come to CA Avocado
Red imported fire ant (RIFA), Solenopsis invicta, has been reported as a pest in Florida where the fire ants girdle young citrus trees (Diepenbrock) https://crec.ifas.ufl.edu/media/crecifasufledu/extension/extension-publications/2021/2021_jan_fireant.pdf Florida researchers found that RIFA girdled the trees and killed them. In the summer of 2022, we discovered newly planted avocado trees being girdled and killed in WHERE?. Upon closer examination we discovered the girdling was from the activities of a fire ant. Dr. Dong-Hwan Choe, Professor of Extension – Entomologist at UC Riverside, identified it as Solenopsis sp. Figure 1 show the initial damage to an otherwise healthy avocado tree which weeks later was completely girdled and dead. Fire ants were controlled using a bait. This took 2 applications. Fire ant mound is evident in Figure 1B but is not the typical mound that is associated with fire ants so growers need to be watching for ant activity and treat proactively. The fire ants were very aggressive to both the tree and the people working the trees.
Figure 1: (A) initial holes made by fire ants. (B) girdled tree and mounds at basin of tree and (C) dead trees.