Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] Fire ants (was South Carolina Flooding)

Subject: Re: [OM] Fire ants (was South Carolina Flooding)
From: Tina Manley <tmanley@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2015 11:40:55 -0400
We have guineas that take care of all ticks, fleas and mites.  I prefer
guineas over fire ants.  Unfortunately, the guineas won't eat fire ants.

Tina

On Sat, Oct 10, 2015 at 10:29 AM, Dean Hansen <hanse112@xxxxxxx> wrote:

>      OK, OK, gotta weigh in here.  Thirty-some years ago I brought a
> trailer-load of my honeybee colonies from Minnesnowta to overwinter on some
> ranch land about 60 miles north of Houston, Texas.  Fire ant mounds were
> all over the pastures.  I said to the rancher who kindly let me put my
> hives on his land, "Don't you just hate those fire ants?"  Well, no, was
> the reply. Since the fire ants had moved in, the ranchers there no longer
> had to "dip" their cattle to remove the ticks and mites that tormented them
> and carried diseases.  Seems that the fire ant colonies all but eliminated
> the ticks and mites while they were still on the ground.  I can't quote any
> peer-reviewed scientific publications on this, but that's what the rancher
> said.  But he also added that the fire ants were murder on the young of
> ground-nesting birds such as quail.
>      Another non-Minnesota critter that was very common down there was the
> black widow spider.  They liked to hide in the hand-holds cut into the
> sides and ends of the bee boxes, and one had to be, well, kinda careful
> before picking up a hive body.  They also nested on the undersides of the
> hive pallets that the more mechanized beekeepers used.  I'm sure thousands
> of black widow spiders inadvertently made their way to MN and the Dakotas
> on the semi-loads of bees trucked up each year from the south.  But our
> northern winters eliminated any survivors here by November or December.  It
> was a one-way trip.
> Digest Dean
> --
> _________________________________________________________________
> Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
> Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
>
>


-- 
Tina Manley
www.tinamanley.com
tina-manley.artistwebsites.com
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography/3B49552F-90A0-4D0A-A11D-2175C937AA91/Tina+Manley.html
-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz