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Caution: This message has nothing to do with caves, unless there is a
category for "Adventures in Caver Houses". Yes, leaf cutter ants are in south central and east Texas. See the excerpt below from http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/ants/leaf_cutting When I lived in Belmopan, Belize, there was a medium-sized nest (ca. 1.5 meters diam) under the hibiscus hedge in front of my house. The ants would target a specific tree in my yard and harvest it for several days or weeks, depending on the size of the tree. So their trails kept shifting, and at certain times of the year they would cross my front door step. They often worked at night, and I didn't have a front porch light. So friends, neighbors, and foreign visitors (including several hundred cavers over 10 years) would show up at my house, stand on the front step in the dark, and knock on the door. I would open the door, they would walk into the light, look down, and see hordes of large ants climbing up their pants to the knee or above, depending on how long it took me to open the door. This was usually followed by shrieks of horror (maybe this is why they're called "WEE WEE" ants in Belize) and frantic slapping of legs while performing acrobatic leaps. Sweeping piles of non-biting, hard-working, semi-dead ants out of my living room was a nightly routine. I would console my somewhat hysterical guests with rum & cokes, which consumed a significant portion of my meager budget. But with no TV stations, no telephone, and only one radio station, it provided much-needed entertainment. One year, the ants completely stripped a 10 meter tall tree near their nest - twice -, so the tree died. I had to cut it down with a machete before it fell on my house. This effort, combined with years of sweeping piles of dead ants out of my living room and spending lots of money on rum and cokes, finally convinced me to get rid of the nest. I love wildlife and really didn't want to do it, but sometimes you just have to. Fortunately, leaf cutters aren't exactly an endangered species. LowGun P.S. I also lived in several houses that were built in the historic paths of army ants, who had probably been using them for millenia and sure as hell weren't going to stop or go around. But that's another story. Atta texana (Buckley) is a fungus ant commonly called the Texas leaf-cutter ant because it is found mainly in south central and eastern regions of the state. It also occurs in scattered locations in northwestern Louisiana. Primarily considered an agricultural pest, it has also been found in homes on occasions foraging on cereals. It is not a persistent invader of structures. It is estimated that this ant causes "agricultural" losses of $5 million annually in the United States. The Texas leaf-cutter colonies have a very complex social organization. Colonies typically have a single queen and a worker caste (sterile females) of many thousands of individuals, highly polymorphic, varying in size from 1/6" to ½" in length. The queen is huge, more than 1" long and can produce enormous egg masses that give rise to several million individuals. There is a high degree of task specialization among the workers. All colony members are rust-brown in color. Nests of the leaf-cutter ant are established in open and brushy areas in deep, well-drained sandy or loamy soils. They may cover more than half an acre, marked by many crater-shaped mounds of loose soil, sloping inward to a center entry hole. Chambers containing fungus may be found at a depth of more than 8 feet. The nest is a complex structure designed to protect the colony and to provide a healthy, stable environment for the fungus gardens. Fresh air is drawn in through the peripheral tunnels to maintain proper ventilation throughout the nest. Stale air and heat produced by metabolic processes going on in the gardens is vented through central passageways above the gardens. Chambers within the nest are prevented from flooding by a system of lower passages. In hot, dry periods, nest openings are plugged and the workers retreat to more favorable moist areas below. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] |
