EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
I have fire ants all over my place in East Texas. I also have plenty of ticks. One of the excuses that I tell myself for getting guieneas is that they eat ticks. I'm not sure how many they eat, I haven't seen any sore of decline in ticks, but I do have a lot fewer grasshoppers, so there's that.A long time ago, a friend here in MS had relatives that ran cattle. They were getting frustrated with the county agent, who wasn't helping with their fire ant problem quickly enough. They mentioned it to a relative who is an entomologist. He asked them how much they were paying their vet to de-tick the cows, and said that if they left the fire ants alone, they wouldn't have the de-ticking expense. Supposedly, they now ban the county agent from spreading ant poison. No way to know the veracity of that tale, but I can say that I've had tick problems in some areas of my rural residential property, and when fire ant nests appear in those areas, the ticks disappear....
I now kill the ants when they're around walking areas, or if there will be a lot of people in the yard, but otherwise, I leave them alone.
I was told that chiggers where a problem here before fire ants took over. I've never been bit by a chigger here, but I have been tore up by them in the Hill Country near Kerrville TX. If fire ants are keeping chiggers away, then I'm good with fire ants. At least I can spot their mounds and avoid them!!