When we lived in Arizona there were often reports of habitancy being attacked by killer bees. We’ve all heard stories about the northward movement of fire ants.
I do want to reserve “wildlife” but I’m against these invasive species.
Other invasive species are soy bean rust and bird flu. All of the above are smaller than a bread box.
The United States branch of Agriculture has a web site devoted to invasive species. Find it at http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/. The government has an executive order that defines invasive species (Executive Order 13112).
It has to be from out-of-town” and destructive.
Here are their words:
1) non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and
2) whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.
Isn’t that what I said?
The government guesses that invasive species cost our economy over one billion dollars annually. I guess they are economy than war.
One example is “the glassy-winged sharpshooter, an invasive insect recently detected in California, carries with it the plant bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, a disease that has caused nearly million in losses of California grapes (ibid).”
“Ibid” means the same reference as before. That would be http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/.
Fire Ants
You can read a history of fire ants in the United States at [http://www.msstate.edu/Entomology/ants/history.htm].
They entered after World War I maybe through the port of Mobile, Alabama. They were identified as fire ants some 8 years later. There were two species, one black and the other red.
They swiftly spread in the South East. Now they are found as far west as Texas and Oklahoma with some infestation in New Mexico and spotty infestations in Southern California.
The above narrative says that the spreading of the ants is often due to man. I assume that entomologist with ants in their pants spread the critters. (Just kidding!)
Efforts to kill the ants are prosperous but they must be repeated every year. The ants just won’t go home any more than would other immigrants to the United States. Why would they want to?
Read about the destructive nature of fire ants at http://ipmworld.umn.edu/chapters/lockley.htm. Fire ants will eat anything plant or animal. They destroy ecosystems. Their large mounds disrupt agricultural efforts. Many types of agricultural crops are affected.
In urban communities, the ants act as a evil pest, biting pets and kids, and destroying plant life. And nobody wants one of those ant mounds in the rose garden. Nothing is safe. Homes, cars, air conditioners, under sidewalks, anything is likely to be a home for the fire ants.
The bites are highly painful. An ant will continually bite even after it has delivered all of its poison. They strike in mass if the mound is threatened. Automobile accident victims have been attacked (ibid).
Fire ants are just no good! Read the full narrative at http://ipmworld.umn.edu/chapters/lockley.htm.
Killer Bees
As I said, in Arizona we often had reports of killer bees. These attacks occur in Tucson and Phoenix and other large cities. habitancy are attacked in shopping malls.
There are no bees indigenous to the United States. That means they didn’t live here until after we got here. All of our bees were imported from Europe. The European critter is generally harmless to man, is very beneficial to agriculture, and adapts well in the United States.
The killer bee is an Africanized European bee. Brazil is to blame for the infestation of killer bees to the United States. They hybridized the bees with an African strain to develop a breed of bee more suitable for Brazil. What they got was one mean son-of-a-gun.
Read about the killer bee and its history at [http://chppm-http://www.apgea.army.mil/ento/facts/afrbee.htm].
Killer bees are less likely to engage in mass stinging than fire ants. I’m sure that is no comfort to those in Arizona and other areas that were victims of mass attack. The thing to do if attacked is to move out of the area the bees are defending.
If you are allergic to bee stings and are stung you must obtain immediate medical care.
We need lots of bees here in Idaho to pollinate our crops. Let’s keep the killer bees out.
You should all the time narrative the infestation by invasive species to your county agent. If you don’t know who that is ask someone or go to http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/index.html.
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