First Virus to Infect Red Imported Fire Ants Discovered

The first known virus to infect the destructive and costly red imported fire ant (RIFA) was recently discovered by Agricultural Research Service scientists. RIFA, Solenopsis invicta, currently infests about 300 million acres in the United States. Although RIFA is native to South America, it thrives here because of a lack of natural enemies. Fire ants cost Americans hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The ants occasionally kill young, unprotected livestock and wildlife, and they inflict a painful sting that is sometimes deadly to humans.

Steven M. Valles, an entomologist with the ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology (CMAVE) in Gainesville, Fla., and colleagues at CMAVE and the Agriculture Research Service (ARS) Horticulture and Breeding Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce, Fla., have identified a new natural enemy of RIFA.

A survey in Florida locations found that approximately 23 percent of RIFA nests examined were infected with SINV-1. The virus infects all fire ant castes and stages of development, and Valles was able to successfully transmit the viral infection to uninfected fire ant nests.

Brood in infected colonies died within three months during laboratory studies, but the effect of the virus on field populations is still being evaluated, according to Valles, who is in CMAVE's Imported Fire Ant and Household Insects Research Unit.

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