🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4B88a.58299$jM5.148307@newsfeeds.bigpond.com>, 
"Don H" <donlhumphries@bigpond.com> wrote:
>I think I heard on TV news that these ants are unlikely to infest southern
>areas of Australia, 'cos it's too cold - are they essentially tropical?

If you're talking of fire ants and not crazy ants, they're sort of 
"tropical", but they infest many parts of the USA -- and you may have 
seen the photos in _National Geographic_ some years ago of the icicles 
hanging off oranges in Florida!

Clearly regarded as a potential threat in Victoria (see this absurd 
URL which could only have been created by bloody bureaucrats):

<http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/web/root/domino/cm_da/nrecfa.
nsf/3d08e37a810f38b94a256789000ee6bb/d0b4966e72bce3194a256b1f0080f8bb?
OpenDocument>

[ Try to put *that* on one line! ]

A slightly more sensible URL from the _Medical Journal of Australia_ 
detailing some of the medical hazards of the things as well as the 
usual "the sky is falling" stuff:

<http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/176_11_030602/mcc10192_fm.html>

The home of fire ant research and control in the US is at:

<http://fireant.tamu.edu/>

For studies of the potential range in the USA based on climatic data, 
start at:  

<http://cmave.usda.ufl.edu/ifahi/ifarange_home.html>

The predicted distribution in Australia based on temperature can be 
seen at:

<http://cmave.usda.ufl.edu/ifahi/ifarange_australia.html>

But note that much of Oz is considered too dry for them. Under natural 
rainfall conditions anyway -- so don't water the yard. :)


Cheers, Phred.

-- 
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