Red Imported Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta) Predation on Cliff Swallow (Hirundo pyrrhonota) Nestlings in East-Central Texas

Patch use Under Predation Hazard: Effect of the Red Imported Fire Ant on Deer Mouse Foraging Behavior

“…Fire ant activity is maximal when soil temperatures are between 220 and 360C, but ants will forage at soil temperatures of 15'-430C (Porter and Tschinkel 1987). Imported fire ants are omnivorous, preying primarily on invertebrates but also on a wide variety of native birds, reptiles, and mammals (e.g., Johnson 1961, Ashdown 1969, Hill 1969, 1972, Mount 1981, Mount et al 1981, Ridlehuber 1982, Masser and Grant 1986, Sikes and Arnold 1986, Freed and Neitman 1988, Grant and Killion 1988, Wilson and Silvy 1988, Flickinger 1989, Drees 1992. For crepuscular to nocturnal mice such as the deer mouse (Schmidly 1983), we would expect foraging behavior to be most heavily influenced by fire ants during these seasonal periods of activity overlap.…”

Effects of Invasive European Fire Ants (Myrmica rubra) on Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) Reproduction

“…Island-nesting birds may be particularly vulnerable to population decline due to the limited availability of suitable nesting islands and the potential development of super-colonies of non-native ants following invasion [5], [6]. In some species, the presence of the ants can deter a breeding pair from starting a nest [7], [8]. In other cases, birds are able to establish a nest but are disturbed by ant activity during the incubation period.…”

Effects of Red Imported Fire Ants on Recruitment of White-Tailed Deer Fawns

“…Predation by RIFAs was suggested as contributing to the decline of numerous reptiles (Mount 1981, Mount et al 1981 and birds (Ridlehuber 1982, Sikes and Arnold 1986, Wilson and Silvy 1988. Recently, we documented greater northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus~ density on areas where RIFA populations were reduced, and reported a strong negative correlation between years of county-level infestation and northern bobwhite abundance in Texas (Allen et al 1995).…”