Western Plant Diagnostic Network1 First Detector News A Quarterly Pest Update for WPDN First Detectors Spring 2016 edition, volume 9, number 2 In this Issue Dear First Detectors, For most of us, ants all look the same! Page 1: Editor’s comments Our first response is how to kill them. When one Googles Pages 2 – 7: Ants and You “ant”, the first links that appear are pest control companies. Ants have been around for approximately 130 million years and have diversified and evolved a complicated social Pages 7 - 10: Phytophthora behavior. With the help of several ant experts, we have and Nursery Plants assembled a workshop on ants with wonderful links. Check out the websites and enjoy the vast and varied world of ants! Page 11: Pest Update: Red Blotch of Grapes Vector It is nursery season, and many of us are planting home Found gardens and commercial plantings. The second article is on the challenges presented by Phytophthora infestations in nursery stock. Finally, there is a new pest update. A vector has been discovered for a virus disease of grapevines, known as red blotch. Contact us at the WPDN Regional Center at UC Davis: Please find the NPDN family of newsletters at: Phone: 530 754 2255 Email: [email protected] Newsletters Web: https://wpdn.org Editor: Richard W. Hoenisch @Copyright Regents of the University of California All Rights Reserved Brocken Inaglory Brocken Western Plant Diagnostic Network News Ants fossilized in Baltic amber Ants and You 2 Ants are a true social (eusocial) insect, often appearing suddenly and invading in mass. They are among the most prevalent pests in households. Ants also invade restaurants, hospitals, offices, warehouses, and other buildings where they can find food and water. On outdoor and sometimes indoor plants, ants protect and care for honeydew-producing insects such as aphids, soft scales, whiteflies, and mealybugs, increasing damage from these pests. Ants also perform many useful functions in the environment, such as feeding Alex Wild Photography Wild Alex on other pests (e.g., fleas, caterpillars, and termites), dead insects, and decomposing tissue from dead animals. Harvester ants collect and bury seeds, dispersing the local flora African Driver Ant and thus protecting them from wildfires. See this YouTube Ten awesome facts about ants and antARK’s Amazing Ant Facts! Ants are in the order Hymenoptera, which includes wasps, bees, and sawflies, and in the family Formicidae, from the Latin for ant, formica. The modern plastic laminate “Formica ,” received its name from formic acid and the derivative formaldehyde compound used in the resin. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid -Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than 12,500 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified. They are easily identified by their elbowed antennae and the distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists. Ants undergo complete metamorphosis, passing through egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages. Larvae are immobile, wormlike, and don’t resemble adults. Ants, like many other hymenopterans such as bees and wasps, are social insects with duties divided among different types, or castes, of adults. Queens conduct the reproductive functions of a colony and are larger than other ants; they lay eggs and sometimes participate in feeding and grooming larvae. The sterile female workers gather food, feed and care for larvae, build tunnels, and defend the colony; these workers make up the bulk of the colony. In some species they are all the same size, while others are polymorphic and have small and large workers. Males don’t participate in colony activities; their sole purpose is to mate with the queens. Workers feed and care for males, which are few in number. TPW Magazine Control Pest County Sonoma Above is a diagrammatic of a typical ant queen, male, soldier and worker. To the right are wonderful actual images of the typical ant egg, larva, pupa, and adult. See the educational website EdVIE: The History of Ants and the fascinating video Ant Metamorphosis Western Plant Diagnostic Network News Ant Colonies 3 An ant colony, also called a formicary, is the basic family unit around which ants organize their lifecycle. Ant colonies are eusocial, and are very much like those found in other social Hymenoptera. The typical colony consists of one or more egg-laying queens, a large number of sterile females (workers) and, seasonally, a large number of winged sexual males and females. Periodically, swarms of the winged males and females, called alates, depart the nest in great nuptial flights. The males die shortly thereafter, along with most of the females. A small Shane Becker Shane percentage of the females survive to initiate new nests. Ants usually nest in soil; nest sites vary with species but are often found next to buildings, along sidewalks, or in close proximity to food sources such as trees or plants that harbor honeydew-producing insects. Ants also construct nests under boards, stones, tree stumps, or plants and A plaster cast of a harvester ant sometimes under buildings or other protected places. The primary ant nest with Dr. Walter Tschinkel, that nests indoors is the Pharaoh ant. In temperate climates, this species one of the leading US ant experts nests in warm, moist locations such as inside wall voids, under flooring, or near hot water pipes or heating systems, but is also found nesting outdoors in warmer parts of the West. Food preferences vary among ant species but may include fruits, seeds, nuts, fatty substances, dead or live insects, dead animals, and sweets. Although there is some variation among species, a single newly mated queen typically establishes a new colony. After weeks or months of confinement underground, she lays her first eggs. After the eggs hatch, David Edmondson David she feeds the white, legless larvae with her own metabolized wing muscles and fat bodies until the larvae pupate. Several weeks later, the pupae transform into sterile female adult workers, and the first workers Ant nest with workers caring dig their way out of the nest to collect food for themselves, the queen for the pupae (who continues to lay eggs), and subsequent broods of larvae. As numbers increase, workers add new chambers and galleries to the nest. After a few years, the colony begins to produce winged male and female ants, which leave the nest to mate and form new colonies. Argentine ants differ from most other ant species in that their nests are often shallow, extending just below the soil surface. However, under dry conditions they will nest deeper in the soil. In addition, Argentine ant colonies aren’t separate but linked to form one large “super colony” with multiple queens. When newly mated queens disperse to found new Tortoise Trail Images Trail Tortoise colonies, they are accompanied by workers rather than going out on their own as most other species do. Winged desert leafcutting ants, See these YouTube National Geographic’s Wild City of Ants and Ants: Acromyrmex versicolor, mating Super Soldiers for a fantastic and surreal view of the ant world and ant behavior. Western Plant Diagnostic Network News Which Ant is Which? Basic Ant Anatomy 101 4 Flagstaffotos.com.au antARK See External Ant Anatomy for further details UC IPM UC UC IPM UC First Detectors should always have hand lenses Body parts of a species of ant with two Body parts of a species of ant with one with them! petiole nodes petiole node Myrmecology is the study of ants. Myrmex is the Greek word for ant. The three most important subfamilies of ants in the West are the Myrmicinae (two petiole nodes), Formicinae (one petiole node) and Dolichoderinae (one petiole node). These three websites have extensive lists of species with good photos for identification. Other sources for ant ID are: Pests of Homes, Structures, People, and Pets , The Three Most Common Ant Species, antARK, and AntWeb, the world’s largest online database of the ant world. Alex Wild Photography - Ants is an exceptional site to get up close and personal with ants. And now, let us look at some of our western ant species. The first step in ant management is identification. Carpenter ants get their name because they excavate wood, including lumber, in order to build their nests. Their excavation results in smooth tunnels inside the wood. These are large ants ranging in size from one-quarter inch for a worker ant to up to three-quarters inch for Carpenter ant from the side Carpenter Ant, Camponotus spp. a queen. (note the one node) Western Plant Diagnostic Network News Asian Citrus Psyllid in Arizona 5 Odorous house ant is one of the most common pests of houses and other structures. In nature it feeds on both living and dead insects, and AntWeb tends aphids for their honeydew. In homes they forage primarily for sweets, travel in trails. The colonies can reach up to 10,000 workers and many queens. The antennae of the odorous house Odorous House Ants Tapinoma sessile ant has 12 distinct segments (one node) Pavement ants, Tetramorium Control Wildlife Advanced caespitum, Its common name comes from the fact that colonies usually make their homes in pavement or lawns. It has two nodes on the petiole. They feed on Alex Wild Photography Photography Wild Alex honeydew, sweets, fruit, grease, and pet food. Pavement ant, Tetramorium Pavement ants on the march caespitum (two nodes) Argentine ants Linepithema humilis, are ranked among the world's 100 worst animal invaders. In its introduced range, the Argentine ant often HomeShield displaces most or all native ants. This can, in turn, imperil other species in the ecosystem, Penarc such as native plants that depend on native ants for seed dispersal, or lizards that depend on native ants for food.