A Prelude to Ant War

In one corner is the Tiny Tormentor, the Argentine ant that in the last hundred years or so has managed to spread as one giant colony throughout California’s coastal areas. In the other corner is the Texas Terror, the imported red fire ant whose recent arrival here could mean the featherweight--OK, extreme featherweight--fight of the century.

Which will be the victor in this mandiblefest? Both are extremely aggressive to other ant species and both form super-colonies that keep them from competing with their own kind. In this fight, though, the fans are rooting for a double knockout. Here’s how the contenders stack up.

Most people are familiar with the Argentine ant. There are probably a few scouts crawling around your kitchen as you read this.

For the California Food & Agriculture Department’s take on the pest, try https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/agfacts/pesticides/ant.html.

Meet the Invasive Argentine Ant (https://www.unlv.edu/faculty/wagner/argant.html) is a Las Vegas-focused site, but it has the facts. Invasive says it all. Argentine ants displace practically any native ant species that gets in their way.

More on the little crawlers, which are considered the No. 1 pest in California, surpassing the flea, is at Web sites for Insecta Inspecta (https://www.insecta-inspecta.com/ants/argentine) and UCLA’s Urban Bestiary (https://www.lalc.k12.ca.us/uclasp/urban_science/urban_bestiary/ant.htm).

One of the things that makes the Argentine ant such a tough competitor is that, unlike most other ant species, it forms multi-queen colonies. And there’s very little genetic variation in the ants in California, according to a study from UC San Diego (https://www.eurekalert.org/releases/ucsdsoi051200.html). Those facts lead to no infighting but much invading.

The new ant on the block is the red imported fire ant. And just so you know, the fire part doesn’t come from its color but from its sting. Fire ants are endemic in Texas and much of the Southeast, so naturally, Texas A&M; University has one of the better Web sites on the topic at https://fireant.tamu.edu.

Though the most the Southeast can hope for is controlling the ants, in California the goal is still eradication. There’s a big effort to spot and report fire ant colonies. Check out the official information line at https://www.fireant.ca.gov/index.html.

Why’s it so important to wipe them out? Los Angeles Department of Health Services spells it out at https://www.lapublichealth.org/vet/news/firefact.htm. The ants could do billions of dollars of damage, plus, ouch, they really hurt.

Like surfers and Argentine ants, the fire ants in California have taken on a locals-only attitude. In their native Brazil, the ants usually form single-queen colonies and therefore are territorial against other fire ants. Here, they’ve opted for the multi-queen format. Hey, my beach, my wave, my mound.

As for Argentine ants and fire ants mixing it up, the edge goes to the fiery Texas Terrors, according to Les Greenberg, who heads the fire ant research program at UC Riverside and is co-author of a fire ant Web page at https://www.riversidecfb.com/fireants.htm.

“If fire ants get a good, strong foothold, they do start to displace the Argentine ants,” he said. But if you change the balance of power, “the Argentines seem to pick up on that very quickly.”

For example, if a fire ant colony is treated with pesticide, even though many fire ants may be left alive, “the Argentines move in and attack.” Argentine ants also have been known to attack very young fire ant colonies.

There has been a study, posted at https://cmave.usda.ufl.edu/eeo/ scienceoutreach/harrison.htm, showing that without their huge numbers, Argentine ants would lose.

Fortunately for this state, there have been only pockets of fire ants, and because of their need for water, their range in California is limited.

There’s more good news. Entomologists say some new treatments for Argentine ants are in the pipeline and seem to be effective in controlling them. The bad news is that with certain population configurations, fire ants and Argentine ants seem to be able to coexist. Yikes.

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Robert Burns is an assistant Business editor at The Times.