May 16, 2007

Have Fire Ants Met Their Match?

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Researchers have pinpointed a naturally occurring virus that kills red fire ants, which arrived in the US in the 1930s and now cause $6 billion in damage annually nationwide by destroying crops, damaging farm and electrical equipment, and hastening soil erosion. The virus caught the attention of US Department of Agriculture researchers in Florida in 2002. The agency is now seeking commercial partners to develop the virus into a pesticide to control the ants, which have no natural predators.
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