Foraging by Red Imported Fire Ants on Turfgrasses.

Red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera; Formicidae) is a major pest in urban landscapes including residential/commercial lawns, sports fields, golf courses, parks and highway rights-of-way. Foraging preferences for various turfgrass clippings were investigated under controlled lab conditions by exposing clippings of each grass to fire ant foragers for a 5-h period. ‘Tifway’ and ‘Baby’ clippings were 7 times more preferred than ‘Tifton 10’ and ‘GN1’ bermudagrass (Cynodon sp.). ‘TXKY 00-34-2’ had 5 times more foraging ants on it than ‘TXKY 01-59-9’ Texas bluegrass x Kentucky bluegrass hybrid (Poa pratensis L. X P. arachnifera Torr.). ‘El Toro’ was only 2 times more preferred than ‘Crowne’ zoysiagrass (Zoysia japonica). ‘BitterBlue’ was 3.4 times more preferred than ‘Floratam’ St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum Walt. Kuntze). There were 2-4 times more ants foraging ‘Texoka’ than either ‘Prairie’ or ‘Bison’, respectively [Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm.]. After foraging for 5-h on clippings of the five or six cultivars in each replicate, preference for grasses (expressed as the number of ants on each grass) was bermudagrass (169.3) > zoysiagrass (137.5) = bluegrass hybrids (136.8) > St. Augustinegrass (127.1) > buffalograss (34.5).