Ashburn, GA, (very close to Heaven!) | We've been fighting them for years, but the real problems are in in pastures. Soybeans? Hmm, maybe it's our coarse textured soils, but our mounds, though massive enough, must not be quite so tall, with most of that sand "rolling" back down. We just don't grow enough soybeans to know, maybe, and the few we grow set most beans high enough up the stalk. When we dig and shake peanuts, we shake and spread out many beds. Fire ants have really become a key beneficial in peanuts, really working over the foliage feeding caterpillars. In cotton they really work on caterpillars, too.
FWIW, they love that sweet aphid honeydew to such an extent, that in cotton, we see fire ants "farm" them. Much as we heard cattle from grazed down pasture to fresh grown grass, I witness fire ants literally moving aphid nymphs from a sapped area of a cotton leaf to a fresh area. |