Proceedings Of The 2007 Annual Imported Fire Ant Conference

144 Pages·2007·9.58 MB·English

Proceedings of the
2007 Annual Imported Fire
Ant Conference
April 23-25, 2007
Gainesville, Florida, USA

Hosted by:
Imported Fire Ant and Household Insects Research Unit,
USDA-ARS, Center for Medical, Agricultural,
and Veterinary Entomology

Proceedings of the
2007 Annual Imported Fire Ant Conference
April 23-25, 2007
Gainesville, Florida, USA

Conference hosted by:
Imported Fire Ant and Household Insects Research Unit
U.S. Dept. Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service,
Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology
1600/1700 S.W. 23rd Drive
Gainesville, Florida, USA 32608

Organizing Committee
Robert Vander Meer, Chair
Matthew Aubuchon
Eric Daniels
Yoshifumi Hashimoto
Margaret Martin
David Oi
Sanford Porter
DeWayne Shoemaker
Steven Valles

Proceedings compiled by:
David H. Oi
USDA-ARS, Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology
Gainesville, FL 32608
Proceedings Disclaimers

These proceedings were compiled from author submissions of their presentations
at the 2007 Annual Imported Fire Ant Conference, held on April 23-25, 2007 at the Best
Western Gateway Grand hotel in Gainesville, Florida. The 2007 annual conference was
organized by the Imported Fire Ant and Household Insects Research Unit of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service’s Center for Medical,
Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology located in Gainesville Florida.

The opinions, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the participants and
are advisory only. Mention of trade names or commercial products in this publication is
solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply
recommendation or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The papers and abstracts published herein have been duplicated as submitted and
have NOT been peer reviewed. They have been collated and duplicated solely for the
purpose to promote information exchange and may contain preliminary data not fully
analyzed. For this reason, the authors should be consulted before referencing any of the
information printed herein. This proceedings issue does not constitute formal peer
review publication. However, ideas expressed in this proceedings are the sole property of
the author(s) and set precedence in that the author(s) must be given due credit for their
ideas.

Copies of the Annual Imported Fire Ant Conference Proceedings are available as
pdf files on the USDA, APHIS, CPHST, Soil Inhabiting Pest Section website.

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Table of Contents

Page

Proceedings Disclaimers 2

Remarks from the Conference Chairperson 4

Acknowledgements 5

Index to Submitted Abstracts/Presentations 6

Abstracts/Presentations 11

Conference Agenda 119

List of Registrants 131

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Greetings all fire ant customers and partners,

That was the salutation on the invitation letter that we sent out to prospective attendees to
the 2007 Annual Red Imported Fire Ant Conference, held at the Best Western Gateway Grand
April 23-25. Conference success depends on your attendance and participation and I am very
pleased to tell you that we had over 175 registered attendees (including many international
participants). By that measure the conference was a great success and illustrates the interest in
fire ants at virtually every level. Our Keynote speaker, Dr. Walter Tschinkel (Florida State
University), gave an excellent presentation that generated a lot of active discussion – his
proceedings contribution should do the same. Dr. Rick Brenner (Assistant Administrator, Office
of Technology Transfer) gave a very interesting historical perspective on ARS technology
transfer as our after dinner speaker at the banquet. Increasing the breadth of the Conference was
the Areawide Project Core member meeting and the workshop organized by Kathy Flanders for
the Imported Fire Ant e-Xtension group. I am sure all of you are being kept up-to-date on the
progress of this interesting and extensive project. We had many comments about the excellent
job carried out by the Best Western Gateway Grand – the food, facilities, and hospitality were
top of the line!
What was really exceptional were the 175+ participants, who created a great interactive
atmosphere that promoted discussion and exchange of ideas that went far beyond the formal
presentations. Maybe that’s not unexpected; after all we are all working on a social insect. The
other exceptional happening was the superb support the Conference received from Sponsors –
check out the Sponsors page in these Proceedings. I want to send a personal THANKS to all
mentioned above, and those who gave the opening remarks: CMAVE Director, Ken Linthicum;
National Program Leaders, Dan Strickman and Herb Bolton; and Mary Chiles, staff member for
Senator Bill Nelson. Lastly, a special thanks to the members of the Imported Fire Ant and
Household Insects Research Unit who made everything happen!
Be on the look out for the 2008 Fire Ant Conference announcement to be hosted by
Clemson University and Tim Davis in Charleston, SC!

Bob Vander Meer
Chairperson, 2007 Annual Imported Fire Ant Conference

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Acknowledgements

The organizers were very grateful for the generous support of the 2007 IFA
Conference provided by the following sponsors:

BASF

Bayer Environmental Science

Cargill

Dupont

Syngenta

Valent

Wellmark

Whitmire Micro-Gen

We thank Elaine Connolly, Jorge Negron, and staff of the Best Western
Gateway Grand for the excellent accommodations and service in meeting needs of
the conference participants and organizers.

Organizers also wish to acknowledge the dedicated assistance of staff from
the Imported Fire Ant and Household Insects Research Unit and other units in
preparation of and during the conference, and with the proceedings publication:
Kristy Simmons, Kathleen Smitherman, Peggy Zelonka, Michael Brooks, David
Milne, Becky Blair, Euripides Mena, Chelsea Winikor, and Pamela Wheeler. In
addition, the advice from the 2006 IFA Conference organizers Fudd Graham and
Vicky Bertagnolli-Heller were most helpful.

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Index to Submitted Abstracts/Articles

*NOTE: NS denotes Not Submitted; (#) denotes presentation number; speaker in bold

Page Keynote Address;

11 Walter Tschinkel: Fire ants and native ants: a cautionary tale.

Submitted Presentations
Session 1: Extension/Management/Range Expansion

12 (1) Bastiaan “Bart” M. Drees, Kathy Flanders, Henrietta Ritchie:
Extension Fire Ant Web-site Launch at http://www.extension.org .

13 (2) Xing Ping Hu, Dunlun Song: Field trials of fire ant bait products for
controlling fire ants.

NS (3) Higashi Seigo, Shyuhei Koulo: Increasing threats of invasive ants in
Japan.

17 (4) Ronald D. Weeks Jr.: Best management practices (BMP) for
guarding against imported fire ants (IFA) in agriculture and forestry
commodities known to harbor IFA.

18 (5) Charles Barr: Comparison of retail market broadcast fire ant control
products.

Session 2: Biological Control and Behavior

NS (6) Don Henne, Seth Johnson: Zombie fire ant workers: behavior
controlled by decapitating fly parasitoids.

23 (7) Tom Fink, Vijay Ramalingam, Shirong Du, John Seiner, Doug
Streett: Behavioral interactions of the black imported fire ant (Solenopsis
richteri Forel) and its parasitoid phoridae fly (Pseudacteon curvatus
Borgmeier) as revealed by field high-speed video.

24 (8) Yoshifumi Hashimoto, Steven M. Valles: Solenopsis invicta virus1
tissue tropism and intra-colony infection rate in the red imported fire ant:
A quantitative PCR-based study.

25 (9) Jian Chen, C. L. Cantrell, S. O. Duke, M. L. Allen: Repellency of
callicarpenal and intermedeol against workers of imported fire ants.

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30 (10) Patricia Toth, Phil Koehler, Roberto Pereira, Dave Williams: Effects
of indoxacarb on foraging behavior of Solenopsis invicta.

NS (11) L.M. Hooper-Bùi, B. Wiltz, L.A. Womack, M.A. Seymour: FAST
(Fire Ant Surge Threat) prevention program in south Louisiana after
hurricanes Katrina and Rita. (T. Schowalter presented for Hooper-Bùi)

NS (12) Sanford Porter: Distribution of the Formosa strain of the fire ant
decapitating fly Pseudacteon curvatus three years after releases in North
Florida.

Session 3: Biology/Ecology

37 (13) Sherri L. DeFauw, James T. Vogt, Debbie L. Boykin: Influences of
imported fire ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) bioturbation on soils and
turfgrass in a sod production agroecosystem.

38 (14) Deby Cassill, Anthony Greco, Rajesh Silwal, Xuefeng Wang:
Opposable spines facilitate fine and gross object manipulation in fire ants.

NS (15) Murali M. Ayyanath: Gerald T. Baker, Peter W. K. Ma.
Partial characterization of PBAN-like immunoreactivity in the hybrid
imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren X Solenopsis richteri Forel
(Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

NS (16) S. Bradleigh Vinson, M. Walker Hale, J. Bernal: Effects of
Thelohania solenopsae (Microsporidia: Thelohaniidae) infection on
Solenopsis invicta colony fitness components and queen adoption.

39 (17) Henry Y. Fadamiro, Li Chen: Semiochemical mediated responses of
the phorid fly Pseudacteon tricuspis to imported fire ant odor.

45 (18) Chin-Cheng Yang, Wen-Jer Wu, Cheng-Jen Shih: Revised data
showing alternative distribution of two social forms of red imported fire
ant, Solenopsis invicta, in Taiwan.

51 (19) Freder Medina, Haiwen Li, Brad Vinson, Craig J. Coats: Bacterial
microbiology of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren
(Hymenoptera: Formicidae), midgut.

53 (20) Andrew M. Bouwma, D. DeWayne Shoemaker: No evidence for
Wolbachia phenotypic effects in newly mated queens of the fire ant,
Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

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55 (21) Robert Renthal, Otis Blanchard, Daniel Gonzalez: Proteomics as a
tool for developing IFA control strategies.

57 (22) Samuel A. Ochieng: Imported fire ant responses to interspecies
gland extracts.

Session 4: Extension/Management/Prevention

NS (23) Nate Royalty, Jeff Michel, Britt Baker, Tom Macom: MaxForce FC
fire ant bait and TopChoice on fertilizer - the latest developments in fire
ant management from Bayer.

58 (24) Lekhnath Kafle, Wen-Jer Wu, Yi-You Huang, Cheng-Jen Shih:
Evaluation of a water tolerant bait for red imported fire ant, Solenopsis
invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in Taiwan.

59 (25) Yang-Yuan Chen, Hui-Min Lin, Yu-Ching Tseng, C.T. Chen,
William Can-Jen Maa, C.C. Lin: Eradication of fire ants using liquid
nitrogen and heated gas pulses.

63 (26) Eva Yi-Fan Huang, Po-Yung Lai, William Wei-Lien Chyi, Kevin
Tsair-Bor Yen, Yang-Yuan Chen: Utilization of odor sensibility of dogs in
detecting the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, in Taiwan.

NS (27) James Saulnier, Phil Boeing: RIFA control in the Coachella Valley,
California.

65 (28) Les Greenberg, Charlie Cassidy: Fire ant pesticide trials at Knott’s
Berry Farm, 2006.

Session 5: Biology/Ecology

NS (29) James Anderson, Jake Marquess: Particle velocity measurements
inside IFA tunnels: Was Hickling right?

68 (30) Les Greenberg, John Kabashima, Mike Rust, John Klotz, Tim Paine:
Lethal dose-response curves of several ant species to fire ant venom.

NS (31) Alejandro A. Calixto, Marvin K. Harris, Charles L. Barr:
Interference competition by Solenopsis invicta displaces native ants at
broadcast baits: Implications for management of Solenopsis invicta and
restoration of native ants.

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