The Fire Ants

by Walter R. Tschinkel

Walter Tschinkel's passion for fire ants has been stoked by over thirty years of exploring the rhythm and drama of Solenopsis invicta 's biology. Since South American fire ants arrived in Mobile, Alabama, in the 1940s, they have spread to become one of the most reviled pests in the Sunbelt. In Fire Ants Tschinkel provides not just an encyclopedic overview of S. invicta --how they found colonies, construct and defend their nests, forage and distribute food, struggle among themselves for primacy, and even relocate entire colonies--but a lively account of how research is done, how science establishes facts, and the pleasures and problems of a scientific career. Between chapters detailed enough for experts but readily accessible to any educated reader, "interludes" provide vivid verbal images of the world of fire ants and the people who study them. Early chapters describe the several failed, and heavily politically influenced, eradication campaigns, and later ones the remarkable spread of S. invicta 's "polygyne" form, in which nests harbor multiple queens and colonies reproduce by "budding." The reader learns much about ants, the practice of science, and humans' role in the fire ant's North American success.

Genres: Science, Biology, Nonfiction

752 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2006

Reviews

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book as a teen, and it is great for ant lovers, but at the price I bought it (over 50 dollars) and at the sheer heft and volume (this is easily comparable to a thick textbook) and the way it goes into detail about, well, stinging ants, it probably isn't for most people although I do faintly remember there being funny field anecdotes here and there.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a luscious book.

It's a real gift to be able to get out of our every day mind set as human beings, and enter the world of another critter, especially one that shares our landscape with us.

This book is dense with details of the entire life picture of the fire ant. It is also dense with the details of decades of intense study that Walter Tschinkel has given them. It is one of the gifts that science has to offer us that we are learning how to care about another species simply for their own sakes, to honor them rather than think of them solely in terms of what they can do for us or how we can keep them from our crops or what kind of mythic beings we can imagine that they are.

The book is also full of humor and valuble tips on studying ants. such as the Schmidt pain scale!

Tschinkel also documents the history of the fire ant's arrival to the U.S. from South America and our misguided attempts at eradicating it from our land. Mostly we helped spread it.

I take this book down every know and then and dip in anywhere and get a taste for the kinds of interactions that are happening out in those fields...

here is my take on one of the patterns he discusses, the founding of new colonies:
http://blackskimmer.blogspot.com/2008...

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoyed reading The Ants by E. O. Wilson and Bert Holldobler, then this 600-page coverage of a single genus of ant (Solenopsis [though mostly just Solenopsis invicta]) is for you. Enjoyable reading for the ant enthusiast, covers a wide range of topics including the history of fire ant spread in the United States, genetics, colony life, nest architecture, foraging, predation and prey, and much much more. It contains many anecdotes about the life of a myrmecologist that are quite humorous and insightful. An in-depth treatment for a small piece of the ant family.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating inside to their subterranean existence; very informative and at times bit technical, overall this book reads like a story. I have a newly found respect for the queen: the ultimate survivor.

[Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

I use it all of the time as a reference book for work. Great book not only about ants but also gives insite to how eusocial insect communities are much like human communities. If you like science, nature, or sociology pick it up.