Fire Ant On Trial (1959)

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the long and fascinating history of life on Earth human beings have lived with and have battled insects for many centuries now the war is is between man and the imported fire ant since the fire ant is on trial please listen to his defense 2,000 years ago the Roman naturalist plen the Elder wrote that in India there were giant ants the color of cats and as large as Egyptian wolves that mined gold as an ant I can tell you that this is not nonsense we never grew that big we didn't have to instead we grew to be many and we've always found man's valuable crops far more appetizing than his gold but only recently has Man bothered with my particular species we are known as imported fire ants so-called to distinguish us from fire ants native to this country a few years ago scientists looked us over gave us a Latin name I can't even pronounce and declared that we were a serious pest in a few Laboratories like this one in gulport Mississippi my relatives are captured for steady maybe we are serious pests I don't know being an ant I'm prejudiced but before you people join in the fight against fire ants I'd like you to have the facts this film will help you to know us better help you to take a close look at the problem to see what human communities are doing and how full grown men are trying to control us tiny creatures as an entomologist an insect scientist I'm one of those men the aunt was talking about now that you've heard the insect point of view you must hear the personal accounts of all of us the farmers Housewives Sportsmen and scientists like myself we are all deeply concerned with the imported fire ant problem first let let me introduce you to the three major adult forms meet a worker ant colored red to blackish red he's a sporty fellow with an orange band on his abdomen now meet a winged male it's his job to mate with a queen and finally a wing female or queen like all ants they live in colonies which begin when a queen digs an underground chamber and starts laying her eggs smooth shiny and white to human eyes the egg clusters resemble finely ground meal each Queen looks after her hundreds of eggs all the time even carries them in her cell wherever she goes in less than two weeks the eggs hatch into lar as dirty white grubs they can hardly move the first brood depends on the queen for food in 6 to 12 Days the larae transformed to pupe and now resemble adult ants in shape as soon as the workers emerge they take over the feeding duties for the first and second years until the colony becomes established only workers are produced as the ant colony increases the workers enlarge the mound to accommodate the new Broods in this cross section of a typical mound in the honeycombed spongelike framework there may be 25,000 to 100,000 busy ants some colonies go as far as 5 ft down into the ground and Rise a foot or more above ground and are about 2 to 4 ft across the ever growing tenement seething with life is one of the most complex insect habitations in the world because of disturbances or overpopulation old colonies May abandon one Mound and move to a new spot these are connected by tunnels through which ants move their food supplies eggs and babies great engineering Feats considering their size the tunnels they dig may be 25 to 80 ft long in heavily infested areas ants May build more than 100 Ms to the acre ants really aren't too particular but they prefer a mild climate such as found in the southern half of the United States some colonies exist on Sandy soils Others near the shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico and still others in Marshy lands or Rich River Valley soils but wherever they build Mounds near civilization there's a [Music] problem man bothers The Ant and the Ant bothers man that's right sometimes if Ms get in the way of our machines they can cause a lot of damage and lost time hands make it hard and almost impossible for man to work if every year ant mounds damage more and more equipment you can bet one thing when bails are H left in the fields overnight bar an get in the bails before the next day once ants move in farm hands can't handle the ha and often the ha is low I've seen Damage Done to other crops too like potatoes corn clover small grains of beans and peanuts as a farmer here in the South I can tell you from experience these ants are vicious when they're Disturbed they fight anything anybody what's more most cases a little B as wind in heavily infested areas they make it hard for Farmers like me to hire field in in addition to people the an attacked animals newborn blams pigs of C to victims of the F's terrible appetite don't think to P just limits itself to Wildlife and agriculture construction gangs and utility Crews have tried various ways to avoid them trouble is fire ants can't read now don't get the idea that our homes are safe from Attack by the fire ant mommy Betty [Music] momy I'll tell you something else cemeteries are favorite places for these pesky things I know people who have suffered painful stings while attending burial services where there were fire ant mounds my husband is always ranting about how fire ants cause a lot of trouble on the golf course an unnatural Hazard they call it these fire ant mounds are very common and really a nuisance in open areas like Lawns parks and school [Music] yards and when their homes are stepped on of course they [Music] fight if that child were allergic to fire ants they might kill him it has happened listen to what my doctor told me fire ant stings are painful when humans and pets are stung they will remember the sting a long time first the ant sinks its jaws into the flesh giving the victim a stabbing pain then the insect brings up the stinger and drives it into the skin as soon as it injects poison the victim feels a bite that itches and burns while hanging on with its jaws the ant may sting a half dozen times before letting go afterwards there develops a wheel then a pule a pimpl like soore that can leave a scar depending on a person's allergic reactions the effect of the imparted fire an sting is much the same thing as the sting of bees wasps and hornets those who are un usually sensitive to far an Venom may suffer nausea chest pains and even laps into coma a person with a high degree of allergy subjected to relatively few bites may die we have a case record of a boy who died after receiving only three far an STS Tain University scientists report that on an average summer day in a city like New Orleans 1,000 persons can expect to be stung by fire ANS as an insect scientist I can tell you that the ant has been a Relentless rival of man for a long time in the insect yearbook the US Department of Agriculture says 100 years ago when Henry W Bates was collecting in the Amazon basin he encountered Villages that had been deserted because of the invasion of fire ants once on the move they threaten all warm regions we believe that imported fire ants came into this country by some means from South America about the year 1918 they spread without interference because they resembled the native fire ant there is a record though that several Mounds were found in Mobile County Alabama in in the mid-20s but not until 1929 did we identify imported fire ants as a separate species by which time they had already spread to neighboring counties large scale control efforts with a gas in 1937 reduced the number of ants for a time but by 1947 they had spread to many areas in Alabama and Mississippi the next year Mississippi initiated a limited control program and obtained good results with an insecticide dust even though the infestation seemed to die down again in that area the threat of this insect spreading beyond the two affected States was evident they were spreading because modern Transportation carries imported fire ants as hitchhikers [Music] and ancient Transportation still does a good ant travel [Music] business a common means of spread into new areas has been with bald and Burlap Nursery stock can any of us guess how many future imported fire ant colonies are present in just one ball of Earth if the soil came from an infested area in this way man actually digs up transports and plants imported fire ants across County and state lines but the chief means of natural spread is the nuptial flight winged forms are rarely seen they live in seclusion until mating time when the mating flight is about to occur the entire Colony becomes [Music] busy the males and females take off for their one and only mating flight the males die and the fertilized Queens return to Earth to find nesting sites the fire ANS are definitely on the move right now in 1949 your radio listeners may not realize that we in Alabama face such a heavy fire an infestation just look at these fire ant reports with red hot needle stings this imported fire ant is making it Mighty uncomfortable for us we may never accurately figure the full cost of trying to live with this pest I have a question a listeners would like to have answered why doesn't Washington do something about this problem they are Alabama Mississippi and Florida with the help of the United States Department of Agriculture have just started a Cooperative project you can tell your listeners that 1949 is the turning point at long last we're going to learn something about the biology and control the distribution and the economic importance of this pest now your Alabama radio Farm reporter brings you news about the battle against the red hot needle pest I mean the imported fireand joint federal state surveys are underway to determine the exact distribution and damage of the pest the field survey work will start in the main infested area here in Mobile Balwin and Washington counties well that's how the fire ant survey started back in 1949 now in 1957 the governments of these fire ant infested States and the US Department of Agriculture joined forces to Halt and to destroy this insect today as County agent and as chairman of this civic association I've called this meeting to discuss the fire an problem and what's to be done about it now first I'd like to call upon our fire amp survey director Mr Jim Lawson Jim will you bring us up to date on this fire amp matter thanks Bill back in 1949 the imported fire ants Holdings were relatively small its spectacular spread was just beginning in that year our original survey found the imported fire ant over an area approximately 7,000 square miles around mobile there were colonies ranging East to Pensacola Florida West to Pascagoula Mississippi and North to Grove Hill Alabama by the end of 1953 The Pest was known to infest 100 2 counties in the spring of 1958 just after the present eradication program got underway imported fire an infestations were reported in 150 counties and parishes in nine states unless checked the fire ant might even spread to the 40° line this includes Philadelphia Indianapolis and Denver and where conditions are right the pest could become established north of that line under the new Cooperative State local eradication program large infested areas are broken into smaller units for installment treatment thus only a manageable portion of the total acreage is treated at a time according to this plan in several years our eradication program can be completed already reports show good results in our fight against the fire ant this is your TV Farm reporter bringing you the latest in the fire ant eradication program in the areas treated to date officials and Farmers report excellent kills of fire ants in the treatment every precaution is taken to protect Wildlife fish and birds [Music] since the dry insecticide poures like sugar it does not stick to dry vegetation and will not be eaten by animals and birds feeding in foliage berries and fruits instead it reaches a ground where it can destroy fire ANS even though infestations cover lots of acreage they're usually spotty and are therefore treated only only where necessary competent and experienced federal and state technicians supervise the work to ensure proper and effective application fish and wildlife agencies are working with the [Music] program airplanes have been used against fire ants a number of towns and cities as well as rural areas inspector one to station the cut off at the pond was accurate No DFT the man are moving over for the next swath over and out station to inspector one Roger wind velocity still under 8 mph time for a few more loads Joel move over to the woods and check the cut off there out heavily wooded areas are seldom infested with ants that's why treatment from the air stops when the airplane approaches the trees ants move into open areas like logging roads and have to be eradicated by using ground equipment provided all people cooperate there will be no damage when the airplanes or ground equipment go to work no damage that is except to the fire ant you've been treating in our neighboring counties is it doing any good in 1956 we began a program of treating by putting insc asde in the fertilized and we covered our entire area that was open and we had lots of fire an left in the wooded areas on hedge rolls and fence rolls in 195 in this last year we participated with the state federal government in the overall program treating by airplane and we have a complete job of eradication on our farm I am from the county north of here and uh prior to the time time that we had this area treatment of uh F ants I lost a number of newborn Lambs but since then why I haven't lost one you can readily see why I am highly pleased with the results of this program well I can tell you that the farmers in one heavily infested area whose places have been treated are Mighty happy in a single year fire ants caused them an estimated $350,000 damage I've had fance on my place for the last four or five years I treated each year by treating the individual Mounds with approved insecticides and thought that I was doing a good job but I evidently didn't treat fall enough around the Mounds because each time they would come back many fold however since the initiation of this program where we treated the entire areas I have gotten 100% kill and am very pleased with the PR well as you know one of our main sources of income is pasty grass seeds and small grain and with the finance building those Mounds up we're just it's impossible to combine they get in your combine and clog it up and then it's impossible to clean them out and since we've been on this program of eradicating them combine has been a pleasure it really worked on our farm last week we put up hay for the first time in several years without being bothered with fire ANS up to the time it was treated with insecticide was mightly impossible to make he uh you had to move the bails even out of the field immediately or ants would get in the bills we followed recommendations laid down in the program we took a cattle off the pastures before treatment and kept them off until after a rain and there were other recommendations like turn over or cover all water and feed containers we got the poultry undercover if treatment is to be done when bees are active outside their High The Beehive should be moved out of the treatment area if the insecticide is applied when bees aren't active such as during cold months The Beehive should be covered those were the main precautions we took and we didn't have a bit of trouble after an area has been treated for finance can it be reinfested well that's a question for our state enologist Mr Dave Sanders Dave scientists in the field of emology wrestle with this problem all the time we've moved a long way towards solving it with the Advent of residual or long lasting insecticides the ones used in this program give effective control of fire ants for up to 3 years after they're applied even with this kind of protection against reinfestation you can see that any insect suppression program is only temporary unless all the trouble spots are cleaned up is there anything being done to keep the Farin from spreading to the other parts of the country oh yes indeed federal and state quarantines are in effect in Fire and infested areas they regulate movement of materials such as soil and unprocessed sand and gravel grass sod plants with soil attached that growing forests fields and nurseries and any other articles and products that are likely to spread the fire ant effective treatments are available to destroy ants in these materials your state and federal inspectors will be glad to give you advice on moving such products all right it's been brought out in this meeting that we have at least three primary objectives in our fight against the fire amp first we want to prevent further spread of this Pest and secondly we must locate and eradicate these outlying infestations and finally we want to develop County or areawide eradication programs in these generally infested areas well what can we as individuals do I'm glad you asked that question because the help of both rural and urban people is needed if we really want to get rid of this pest now here are some of the things that all of you can do first participate in community action such as you have in attending meetings like this and you will help wipe out this pest secondly give survey and eradication workers free access to your [Music] property follow all the recommended precautions when insecticides are [Music] applied report infestations which you suspect are fire ants to your county agent or state entomologist will take a long hard fight to Route this costly and Troublesome pest from all its Holdings in the South just as we have cleansed the nation of other insects the imported fire ant can be eliminated such a campaign is much more effective and far cheaper than living with the pest well what is your verdict can man win the battle with this pest everyone thinks man has inherited the Earth but for how long [Music]