It may literally starve the ant to death by using all its energy reserves, or it may affect the queen's reproductive output. It also may make the ants more susceptible to attacks by outside forces such as other ant species, she explains. In the laboratory, researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Florida have transmitted the parasite by placing an infected colony with a non-infected colony. However, how it is transmitted in nature still is not known. Once the means of transmission is known, scientists may be able to turn an endemic, or existing, disease into an epidemic.
Endemics affect fire ant populations at low levels all of the time.
An epidemic would inflict greater damage to colonies. Researchers also are studying such factors as weather pattern effects, parasite damage to ant colonies and the scope of parasite sites. Cook says she hopes to finish this phase of the work in a year. She also hopes to someday conduct molecular research and study the genetics of the parasites that infect fire ants.