The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 13, 1982, Image 22

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Page 14-The Agriculturist-April 13, 1982
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Fireant control
AI system provides answer
By JIL K. GOODE
Some Texas political leaders are work
ing to rid the state of them. At picnic
grounds people studiously avoid them.
But in a Texas A&M University research
laboratory, they are being artificially re
produced.
They are fire ants.
“While many detest the tiny, stinging
pests, entomologists at Texas A&M are
discovering that even fire ants are social
ly exclusive,” said Dr. Les Greenberg, a
postdoctorate fellow in the entomology
department.
Explaining why fire ants from diffe
rent nests show a greater tendency to
fight than do fire ants from the same nest
is Greenberg’s goal.
And, he said, as strange as it may
seem, artificially inseminating the insect
may help provide the clues.
Finding environmentally compatible
chemicals to kill the imported fire ant are
not that easy, Greenberg said.
“Mirex,” the standard control agent
for the imported ant, was found danger
ous by the Environmental Protection
Agency.
“Amdro” is a new insecticide that is
highly bio-degradable and has no toxic
effects. If approved by the EPA, Amdro
will be the first insecticide approved since
Mirex was banned in 1978.
Unfortunately Amdro is in short
supply and is costly (about $10 per
pound).
Most ways of controlling fire ants are
not economical, Greenberg said.
However, he continued, fire ants also
have a good side. They are effective pre
dators against pests like the corn ear-
worm and boll weevil.
As of January 1980, 71 East Texas
counties, including Brazos, were infested
by fireants, and 27 were listed by the
Department of Agriculture as partially
infested.
Research now centers on artificially in
seminating captive queens, Greenberg
said.
“The artificial insemination process
begins when the queen is grabbed by her
wings and anesthetized with carbon diox
ide,” he said. “She is then inserted head
first into a foam rubber sleeve, which is
carefully lowered with forceps into the
queen holder.”
The holder is slowly tightened until
the tip of the queen’s abdomen is slightly
above the top of the queen holder, he
said, and the queen is kept anesthetized
during the insemination procedure.
“Once the reproductive female is se
cured, dissection of the male begins,”
Greenberg said. “The testes are masser-
ated to release the sperm into a concoc
tion of coconut milk and bacterial retar
dant — an excellent dilutant for keeping
sperm alive during storage.”
The sperm dilutant is then injected
into the female.
“Understanding the mating process is
the key to control, and though it hasn’t
been understood in the past, we’re
trying,” Greenberg said.
To further understand the process,
each queen’s food was dyed either pink,
purple, blue or green, he said.
The dying of eggs helps the resear
chers determine if in multiple queen col
onies there is a hierarchy with a primary
queen laying the majority of the eggs, or
if all queens lay equal amounts of eggs,
Greenberg said. The egg total in multiple
colonies has been found to be greater,
even though the individual number is
less than in the single colony.
David E. Ball, contributing authorin
the manuscript, “Instrumental Insemi
nation of the Imported Fire Ant, Sole-
nopsis invicla Buren,” said he perfected
the artificial insemination technique be
cause he wanted to know how a single |
queen colony became polygamous.
Ball’s technique consisted of placing)
trap over a mound and catching all out
going males and females. He then
marked the insects for identification.
The mounds were kept covered for!
several months, he said, and nothingwat |
allowed to enter or leave.
I
When Ball uncovered the mound, he |
said the fireants in the colony had repro
duced and several colonies existed.
Using artificial insemination and in
breeding are two ways that Ball hopesto
produce sterile males into fireant col- j
onies.
“We are hoping for an accident to!
occur so a new angle on our research will [
be introduced. After all,” said Green
berg, “penicillin was just an accident,and I
look at where that led.”
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