Fire Ants..... mass suicide??

[Richard]

Saw the strangest (to me) thing yesterday when walking my dog. Was out in the field and when I'm out there, I almost always pass by the fire ant mounds to see if the Amdro is working.... so I'll give them a quick stomp then back away as they swarm......or not.

Went by one location and ..... wow, how to describe it.....

It looked like puddles of Caviar puddled in various locations of the (previously stomped on) mound.

Looking closer, it appeared to be undulating and presuming the worse...I didn't stomp on it. It appeared to be thousands and thousands and thousands of ants in various clusters.

Curious, I got a stick and sliced the stick through the mass....expecting the entire mass to wake up and attack.

Didn't happen. It was like they were drunk.

I walked on home.

Today, I decided to go by there again and now, it appears they are all dead. Thousands and thousands of them puddled up in various groups.... of dead ants.


I went by the other mounds that I'm aware of, didn't stomp on any of them but not a single one of them had a similar thing.

I got to thinking (last night) that maybe the nest was getting ready to swarm to a new location..... I thought maybe the recent rain we had got in there and drowned all of them.

I don't think it's the Amdro I sprinkled down because nobody else is seeming to have a bad day (nor have they ever done this)


I know my description isn't too good.....but I don't have a picture (yet? might try to get one later if I can)

Wondering if anyone has a clue as to what might have happened to them.

 

[Richard]

I just went back out with camera.... and it looks like I was wrong.

This is another pool of dead ants. So the "situation" has affected more than one location.

Whatever it was that killed them, I hate it for them..... unless this is the precursor of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers...the Ant Version!!!

 

[3Ts]

How long has the amdro been down? The fire ants will remove the dead bodies that are in the underground nest and put them at the surface.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Sounds like the Amdro worked is all.

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

ant colonies that suffer big deaths due to things like disease or poison will often clean out the dead and mound them up outside the colony

 

[JerryK]

ant colonies that suffer big deaths due to things like disease or poison will often clean out the dead and mound them up outside the colony

They are probably down deep in the nest plotting to attack you some night when you are asleep in your bed.... [[[ ]]]

 

[Richard]

How long has the amdro been down? The fire ants will remove the dead bodies that are in the underground nest and put them at the surface.

Wow... never knew that.

Would this be a sign that the mound is dead/dying or are these just the battle casualties and the mound might survive?

 

[jaxs]

I just went back out with camera.... and it looks like I was wrong.

This is another pool of dead ants. So the "situation" has affected more than one location.

Whatever it was that killed them, I hate it for them..... unless this is the precursor of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers...the Ant Version!!!

You might be the first human that felt sorrow for dead Fire Ants.

 

[Richard]

I might...... or, might not! (feel bad for seeing all the death & destruction)

 

[AllByteNoBark]

A dead fire ant is the only good fire ant. Just my opinion.