It includes news stories, fillers and columns. A table of contents for this week is provided below. Roberto Pereira and Karen Vail and technician Derek Bailey, all with The University of Tennessee's Institute of Agriculture. But more than 70 percent of the hybrid fire-ant nests in Hamilton County pastures near Chattanooga were dead when inspected. At the Ames Plantation in Fayette and Hardeman counties east of Memphis, about 75 percent of the black imported fire-ant nests were also dead.
Researchers believe the trees probably buffered the mounds from dramatic drops in temperature.
Researchers also uncovered clumps of dead ants near the surface of the mound. Most were about 2- 5 inches below the surface. The abnormally high fire-ant mortality doesn't usually occur during milder winters. For example, Vail said, during the 1999-2000 winter, mortality in unprotected sites at Ames Plantation averaged about 20 percent. Research is planned with Jason Oliver, entomologist at Tennessee State University, to uncover the environmental conditions that cause winter kill in the black and the hybrid imported fire ants.