Maggots to love
 

hmmmm...

I wonder ...

cool stuff
:)

But whats going to control the Phorid Flies ??

OK I understand the fire ants are really BAD, my cousin lives in the Keys and they have them bad there.

But here they introduced the Asian Lady bug to control ?? (Corn Aphids, something I don't remember).
Now we are over run with them, in fall on warm days the one outside wall will have multiple patches, several square feet each, of the darn things.
Some get into the house and now that it's warming up we have them everywhere.
And the Asian ones bite, not often, not a major bite, only when bothered but they do.

Phorids do have a major drawback -- they are not terribly host-specific. This means they will attack native ants, too.

The argument goes like this: Fire ants attack and extirpate native ants. Therefore, the fire ant population far outnumbers the native ant population. So introducing an ant parasite will differentially impact the fire ant population. Furthermore, phorids do not prey until extinction. So they wont completely annihilate the fire ants or any other species or population. They will attenuate the density of all ants.

Will it work?

Phorids have been introduced across the Gulf Coast states with several viable populations established. In those areas the fire ants have been reduced but not eliminated. Long term? It's an experiment. We'll all find out.

Usually, this sort of interference leads to trouble. Up here in Ontario, we have an invasion of zebra mussels. Some bright goverment biologist decided that gobies would eat them. They put some gobies in an aquarium with nothing to eat except zebra mussels, so that's what they ate. After flooding our lakes with damn gobies, they realized gobies much prefer the eggs of native game fish. Oops!

^^^ That is depressingly typical of so-called bio-controls.

Yep. Nature usually doen't let someting get out of hand for long. Left alone, things will find there own level without "help".

Silly canadians. ;)

Could you direct me to any source where I might read about government agencies deliberately introducing gobies in hopes of controlling zebra mussel populations?

Hello? I'd sure appreciate it if you would direct me to a source where I could read more about this!

I had heard from several locals that the gobies had been introduced deliberately. However, the facts appear to be different(or the MNR isn't taking credit).
The story appears to be that the gobies were introduced from bilge water carried in ocean-going ships. I don't know if gobies are tolerant of salt water(as one might expect to find in a bilge tank) or not.

Here's the gov't position on this:
http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/announce.cfm?ID=475&Lang=e

"Bilge water" -- that's not a lot of water and originates within the vessel. PThe worst contaminants from bilge water are usually hydrocarbons. Bilge water disposal is regulated in most ports.

robably what you mean is ballast water. Ballast is pumped on board to trim the ship as cargo is loaded, unloaded or shifted or as fuel is burned. It is taken on as-needed and could be fresh or brackish or straight seawater. It's mostly unregulated.

I stand corrected. :)

Generally correct but I believe bilge and ballast water is highly regulated in the Great Lakes. How much it is enforced, well who knows.
Unfortunately this was in response to several non-natavie species believed to have been introduced into the Great Lakes via ballast water.
The Sea Lamprey and Zebra mussels primarily.