The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 13, 1982, Image 22
n f 01 Rc bhHVhU Wl I M bKIUhU MtA I bALLb AIMU bAUUt Parmesan Cheese - Tossed Green Salad r\~~—— I I - a ^ 1 * - r-» Page 14-The Agriculturist-April 13, 1982 Ne sc' I i t 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.” Published by Agriculture Journalism majors once a semester to help promote the importance of agriculture. e a Ppreciate the continued support of technical dubs and businesses that advertise with us!