Believe it or not, some people in Georgia are happy to see
fire ant mounds popping up
on their property.

With the help of University of
Georgia entomologists,
some south Georgia farmers are reducing farming costs with the
help of the fiery red
pests.

UGA entomologist John Ruberson
is studying the benefits of using no-till farming in cotton
fields. Working at the Coastal
Plain Experiment Station in Tifton, Ga., Ruberson studies insect
populations in south
Georgia farm fields. And he found large declines in no-till
cotton pest populations.

“No-till farming is just that. The land isn’t tilled from
crop to crop,”
Ruberson said. “We found that when the soil isn’t disrupted,
fire ant populations
just skyrocket.”

Ruberson said the no-till fields had noticeably more fire ant
mounds than the
traditionally tilled fields. But they had dramatically fewer
cotton pest insects.

“Fire ants are predators. We see them traveling up the cotton
plants in search of
food,” Ruberson said.

In cotton fields, a fire ant’s menu consists of bollworms
(corn earworms and tobacco
budworms), armyworms and various loopers. These are all
caterpillars that feed on the
cotton plant’s leaves or fruit and can eventually destroy the
plant.

Fire ants have been reported to feed on other cotton pests,
too, including stinkbugs
and fleahoppers.

Tift County farmer Tim Ross is one of the farmers working
with UGA entomologists and
agronomists by keeping fire ants in his cotton fields.

“I actually appreciate them in my fields because they save me
a little
money,” Ross said. “They give me a few extra dollars I would
have spent on
spraying pesticides.”

Farmers typically have to spray pesticides up to four times a
season to kill pests like
bollworms. But Ross has been able to leave the pest control work
to the fire ants.

Of course, there are down sides to having more fire ants
around.

“Besides the risk of being stung when you scout your fields,
fire ants allow
cotton aphid populations to grow,” Ruberson said. “Cotton aphids
feed on the
plant’s sap and produce a sticky honeydew which makes the plant
susceptible to sooty
mold.”

UGA scientists are continuing to study beneficial uses for
red imported fire ants. But
it’s not popular work.

“Our research is progressing slowly, because funding is
limited,” Ruberson
said. “Everyone’s interested in getting rid of fire ants.
Understandably, no one
wants to fund projects that encourage keeping them around.”