Harm control of red imported fire ants

Solenopsis invicta is aggressive to people and has the ability to sting repeatedly. It affects people's health and quality of life in the invaded areas, destroys electronic instruments of public facilities, and leads to economic losses in communication, medical treatment and pest control. Once the nest is disturbed, the red imported fire ants will leave the nest quickly and carry out a powerful attack. Solenopsis invicta bites human skin with its upper jaw, and stings the human body many times with its claws at the end of its abdomen, releasing venom from the venom sac every time it stings. After being bitten by red imported fire ants, the human body feels as if it has been burned by fire, and then blisters similar to burns will appear. Most people only feel pain and discomfort, and a few people are allergic to the poisonous protein in the venom, which will lead to anaphylactic shock and death risk. If blisters or pustules are broken, it is easy to cause secondary bacterial infection if you do not pay attention to cleanliness.

Solenopsis invicta has brought serious ecological disasters to the invaded areas, and it is the enemy of biodiversity protection and agricultural production. Red imported fire ants eat seeds, roots and fruits of various crops, which harms seedlings and leads to a decline in yield. It destroys irrigation system, reduces work efficiency, infringes on livestock and causes agricultural losses. Red imported fire ants also have a serious impact on wild animals. It can attack the eggs of turtles, lizards, birds and so on, and has a negative impact on the density of small mammals and invertebrates. The research shows that the diversity of ants is low in the areas where red imported fire ants establish ant colonies.

The harm mechanism of red imported fire ants to other animals is mainly manifested in:

(1) Solenopsis invicta preys on newly hatched terrestrial egg-laying animals. Because the newly hatched larvae or larvae gathered after hatching are weak, they are easily attacked by Solenopsis invicta, and eventually become a delicious meal for Solenopsis invicta. Or preying on insect larvae, adults, etc. With the strength of the team.

(2) Red imported fire ants compete with other animals for limited food resources, for example, for plant food with local ant populations, and for insect food with those species whose food source is insects, which leads to the reduction or even extinction of other species due to lack of adequate food supply;

(3) Biting will reduce the survival rate of some animals, change their habitats, even abandon their nests and flee, or increase the chances of being hunted because of the increased activity of being attacked. Prevention ways: Man-made transmission mainly includes long-distance transmission by means of transportation such as horticultural plant pollution, turf pollution, soil waste soil movement, compost, gardening and farming machinery and equipment pollution, empty container pollution and vehicle pollution. In the domestic transportation of seedlings, flowers, lawns and ornamental plants in China, plants basically carry soil or cultivation substrates. These activities may accelerate the spread of red imported fire ants. In the United States, there are even examples of red imported fire ants invading beehives and spreading over a long distance with the activities of releasing bees. Strictly control the export of goods in areas where red imported fire ants occur, and prevent people from taking the epidemic abroad. Strictly check the articles and vehicles transported from the epidemic area, kill fire ants, prevent any goods that may contain fire ants from being transported from the epidemic area, and do a good job in quarantine at the place of origin. Pesticides commonly used in transportation quarantine or quarantine of origin include abamectin, bifenthrin, dichlorvos, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, phenoxy, fipronil, fluorohydrazone, nitenpyram, pyridaben, sevoflurane and cypermethrin.

Technical control: Red imported fire ants have two social types: single queen and multiple queens. Wang Zhongxin, a researcher in Taiwan Province Province, China, cooperated with scholars from the United States, Britain and Switzerland to find that specific "community chromosomes" played a key role in the eradication of red imported fire ants. It is found that there are two distinct social types of red imported fire ants, namely "single queen" and "multiple queens", which are mainly regulated by about 600 "super genes" locked together. These 600 super genes determine that red imported fire ants are "single queens" and "multiple queens". The researchers said that the worker ants in the "single queen" group will kill the queens of other groups; The "multi-queen" group will accept the queen with the "multi-queen" gene and kill the queen with the "single queen" gene.

Nemesis control: Because the red imported fire ant comes from South America, it is mutually exclusive with "South American fruit fly" in South America. This fly is a kind of "flea id fly". Attack red imported fire ants by parasitism. After hatching, larvae feed on the internal tissues of ants. At the same time, the larvae can control the body movements of red imported fire ants, that is, the way of action. It is said that the inspiration of aliens comes from this fly.

Pesticide control: spread poison bait in the feeding area of red imported fire ants. This bait is usually a mixture of corn granules, soybean oil and pesticides. After about 10 ~ 14 days, use the independent anthill treatment method and continue the treatment until the problem is solved. This method is recommended to be treated twice a year, usually the first time in April-May and the second time in September-10. It is suggested to use chemical control agents, and the Pesticide Advisory Committee has approved the use of three poison baits and six contact agents to control fire ants in farmland. Independent anthill treatment method directly treats visible anthills in severely damaged areas and moderately damaged areas with drugs or powders and granules. This control method can effectively control more than 98% of anthills. However, its obvious disadvantage is that it can only prevent and control visible ant mounds, but many newly established ant nests will not produce obvious ant mounds, and it is difficult to see ant mounds in some places with dense prevention and management measures, which often leads to the omission of treatment. Most drug-filled products need to add 5 ~ 10 liter of drug to each ant nest to be effective. Bait (independent nest treatment) individual mountain treatment-contact with pesticides (spinosad), permethrin, fipronil and cypermethrin. In the process of eliminating red imported fire ants, pyridyl ether, deltamethrin, fenvalerate, carbaryl and propoxur should protect local ants and other ecosystems. Niche vacancy may contribute to the spread and occurrence of invasive red imported fire ants. When applying pesticides, dry and fresh pesticides must be used. It is forbidden to mix bait with fertilizers and other substances. They must be placed in strict accordance with the correct caliber and dosage to prevent them from affecting local ants.

Reference materials for hazard prevention