| Experiments were conducted on red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, populations in managed turfgrass settings and in dual-ended vertical ant nest habitats.; The effects of mowing frequency on red imported fire ant colony movement and foraging levels in turfgrass was examined in June and September of 1999 and 2000 and in June and September of 2001. Mowing frequencies (from zero to four times per week) reflected golf course mowing practices in the rough. Plots mowed twice per week had significantly more abandoned mounds than plots mowed once or four times per week in the first unirrigated trial. There were no significant differences in the number of abandoned mounds among mowing frequencies in unirrigated trials two, three or four or irrigated trial five. No significant differences were found in the number of foraging ants and mowing frequency in trials one, two, or three. It is unlikely that mowing frequency stimulates colony movement or numbers of foraging ants.; Fire ant colonies, established in dual-ended ant habitats, were subjected to two randomly paired 15 sec vibration treatments (0 Hz and 37 Hz) for eight or ten consecutive days in two trials. Vibrated colonies had a significantly longer response time than colonies not vibrated in trials one and two suggesting that fire ants habituate to non-threatening disturbances.; The ant habitat also was used to determine if fire ant colonies would prefer a shaded or unshaded nest site when temperature was eliminated as a variable. There were no significant differences in colony movement between the control or a shaded nests in five individual trials. Therefore, the colonies did not exhibit a preference of unshaded versus shaded nest sites.; In the final experiment, the five edaphic regions in South Carolina were surveyed for the presence of polygynous fire ants. At the time of sampling, our results indicated polygyny was found in the Blue Ridge, Piedmont and Southeastern Plains of South Carolina. |
