An Ant You Can Love: the Red Harvester Ant - Texas Wildlife Diversity Program
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ค. 2024
- Unlike non-native fire ants, red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) provide many benefits to Texas habitat and wildlife, including serving as the main food item for the Texas Horned Lizard. For more information on wildlife in Texas, visit our Wildlife Diversity website www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/...
This is an important video for everyone to watch. Most people equate all ants to non-native fire ants .... a big mistake. Thanks for posting. Ken
I've had one of these nests in my back yard for at least 15 years. I just realized it's visible on Google Earth.
lol
There's a colony that's been on my parent's property since before I was born. We have always called them "friend ants". Reluctant to bite and non aggressive unless you stand directly in their nest. I stand quite close to them regularly to watch them and they don't mind me.
These are my favorite ants, going back to my crappy little ant farm I had as a kid. Now there's a large colony in my backyard that I like watching, and they do a good job cleaning up... carrying weed seeds back to their nest and "keeping the riff-raff out". Bugs that walk on the ground in their territory are killed, spiders, grasshoppers, etc. I love ants. My wife thinks I'm nuts.
I love ants too! My family thinks I am strange.
One thing I noticed about these critters is that they don't make anthills, but instead have just a hole that leads to their tunnels.
We have a mound of these in my front yard. My family built this house 50 years and the nest had been around since before then. Every time I go home, I check the mound to see how they're doing. There used to be another nest, but our neighbors destroyed it. My fear is that since a youth center is opening up next door, that kids and possibly older people are going to cause this nest to be destroyed :/ They don't bother anybody at all and as crazy as this sounds, they are kind of like family to me.
Yeah family????
Do you have ants in your pants 👖??
Harvester ant queens in perennial colonies can live as long as 30 years in the wild, so that checks out. Lotta history in that there ant hill.
I did my undergraduate research project on red harvester ants, thank you so much for making this vid! :)
I'm an exterminator in Vegas..and I try to convince my customers to let them live in their yards ..they are peaceful...they will never enter your home...
Thanks so much!
I wish i could convince them to live not directly in my pasture! I dont mind em otherwise but i cant buy more and more coastal because of it 🤷♂️
I'm literally standing over a harvester ant pile and they're fighting with a neighboring fireant mount. It's a huge battle. Wish I could share a photo... These Harvester ants seem to be doing pretty good, but there are a lot of fire ants.
Who won?
Dylan Klebold 😂😂
I hope you killed the fire ant nest.
It is very important to keep red harvester ants around because if they are gone red imported fire ants will rise to take their place.
Just learned we have Harvester Ants👍🏼🐜Thank you for this video, shared it. Since I’m sowing native grasses as a restoration project in the yard I now know these little Ants will be carrying off some of the seeds and I will need to sow in late Autumn if I want more grass to germinate.
All I can say is whoever is shooting this video is a professional. It's not like other shaking or blurring videos. I like this one better.
Thank you, Charlie. I spent a lot of time lying on a cot over the mound with a tripod set up for most of the shots.
their stings HURT; I caught one of their queens today and I'm hoping to start a colony!
No lie when i was young i got bit on the nipple by one of these. It was in the pool and got on my floaty lol. Traumatized
I have always had a soft spot in my heart for these big red ants that have no mound and only one large hole in the ground. When I was 13 us kids built a mayan Pyramid right on top of a red ant nest and we made a hole going straight up through the top of the pyramid for them to exit and enter. No one was stung during the construction of this Pyramid.
Hope you like fire ants instead... They are even worse.
These ants are fascinating to watch. We have 2 colonies at home, but perhaps its one huge one idk, the 2 openings are about 60ish feet apart. One opening is inside the chicken run, and they gather the leftover scratch grains all day and night for the entire spring summer and fall, its incredible how relentlessly they work, even individually they will go to extremes to get the job done. The other colony or opening has a very long path to a section of trees where they cut up and gather green leaves, its amazing to see such a large scale effort with everyone having the same goal.
I came across this video because I was curious about these after being bit. I am in excruciating pain from getting bit by one of these f***ers. Thought about spraying the nest but I won’t anymore since I see they are important. I’ll just make sure I don’t stand over them next time.
beautiful creatures, not harmful or aggressive in the slightest.
We call them big red ants in Texas...
U be quiet no o e calls em that and. Your a n word
We call those pitcher ants
We used to have them everywhere in the DFW area. But when the red ants started disappearing so did the horned lizards, and then the fire ants started invading
I used to love red ants. When I was a kid I'd study them for hours on end, even fed them occasionally.
Most people dont know that the workers have a division of labor that isnt usually recognized in ant colonies.
we used to call these "red ants", they're really big. their mounds usually have a 3 to 5foot diameter cleared area around them. Very easy to see.
We've got harvester ants and I don't mind them in general, however, they have invaded my garden and are attacking the plants - currently they are cutting the tops off my onions. They are welcome on the rest of my acreage but they need to find something else to eat. BTW - they hurt like the devil when they bite.
I love ants! especially these little cuties. I like california harvester ants
I love them. They are doing a mating flight tonite.. its amazing.
Thanks for posting I enjoyed your video. Cheers.
Grew up with these ants and at the time, plenty of “horny toads” too. I live in a small city now, and was thrilled to find a nest. Made sure to let my hubs know, not to destroy them.
Okay, they're beneficial... I guess everything holds a place in nature. They are docile unless the nest is disturbed, but don't, I repeat, don't get stung by one!!! I recently had one get in my sandal and he got me. WOW oh WOW! As bad as a red wasp, but the pain increased over time and it took over a week for the effects to completely go away. They are considered possibly the most venomous insect we have. My concern is for kids playing in the yard. I've warned mine to steer clear.
i have a bunch of these in my front yard and for years i always thought these were fire ants
Dumbass
Amari considering how bad their sting hurts and how toxic their venom is, it's completely understandable.
Something is eating entire fire ant nests on my land. Fire ant mounds used to be everywhere, now they're rare, and getting rarer... almost raw. Meanwhile, the harvester ants are returning. I have three harvester ant colonies on my land now. Nine years ago there were zero harvester ant nests.
I find a fire ant mound that was active one day and it's empty the next. With only a small hole in the side. Whatever it is... (I think it's a possum, or possibly an armadillo?) It cuffs a small hole in the side. Then it must eat every ant that swarms out. Taking advantage of their violent nature.
Nature solves its own problems... like it did with the invasive zebra mussel. They were clogging up everything and now they're a tasty treat for yellow perch. When a perch can find one.
Beautiful species.
I hope they prevail over there invaders.
pogonomyrmex barbatos : im waiting to find a nuptial flight in my area (arizona) to capture a mated queen and raise my own colony!
Good luck! They're great for ant farms!
This ants are so cute i love ants
amazing video, :D
I have a colony I started from one queen ant its amazing
Awesome how many workers do they have now?
Some of my neighbors have harvester nests and I'd love to have some on my property! Is there any way I could locate a recently mated queen and move her to my place??
Only thing I can say is wait for nuptial flight and have a light source on so it attracts them at night... The swarm can be hard to track otherwise.
Stinking fire ants. I love the harvester ants. Fun to watch.Horn toad lizards love them. We need to find a way to wipeout the fire ants. Their a Plague.
@CONNOR EDEL Solenopsis invicta, i.e. the Red Imported Fire ant, are invasive, and are destroying our ecosystem, where they're not native.
@CONNOR EDEL yes, I know, Solenopsis invicta is the most common fire ant in the south, and it is not native.
@CONNOR EDEL yes, ok, I agree
harvester ants are much larger then a fire ant.
My mom was from Hempstead NY, she had me in Denver but moved to California when I was 2. These things were the cause of severe nightmares until I was 12. Still have them, but they are sporadic and no longer stay in my reality when I awake. I could barely watch this video. She found me in a mound of them, said they were all the way up in my diaper. In a new house, I was exploring the backyard and she heard me screaming like she never heard a kid scream. I probably could not understand, and could not think to even get off the mound.
But trying to sleep through the rest of my childhood, I would awake and they would be in my covers!! I would even sleep on the floor to avoid them, which is not logical, but I had just seen them in my bed, and my mom was not letting me sleep elsewhere. I would FEEL like there in the bed. And try the floor, but then I would see them in the baseboards. At first I thought they were fire ants, but they are these! Because the white and tan pebbles always come in the dreams with them, sometimes in bigger sizes than the ants. And them moving slowly, but quickly when disturbed, with dark red coloring. When I turned on the light EVERYTIME... there was nothing! Fire ants are too small, there heads are too small. They move too fast, but these are them! Slowly ominous till disturbed, with huge facial features.
Im still angry at my mom for this, sometimes when I show sever anger in my life (which is rare) wasps-- aka ants with wings will show up, or fly into an open window. Sometimes the kinds I have never seen with the backside hanging by some thread, barely attached to the rest of there bodies. I just think its odd that the times I have been most angry a wasp will pass by to let me know I am bringing more than I need. & I started thinking positive real quick.
As much as I try, I can't understand these things. They scare the crap out of me and always will. Lucky for me in NYC, there are barely any. Only tiny black ants, which do not scare me, here they don't swarm in ugly ominous piles. I know its nature but it fucked with me for 10 years of my childhood, I was afraid to sleep, and every encounter with them on the way to school or at a friends house was a troubled night. I am happy I can somewhat watch, and tonight I know I wont dream of them as I used to as a child. If you have a child, don't let them find these things before you do. Even though I have no recollection of the actual incident, still it affects me to this day. I still! Have to dream about this sometimes.
You should be afraid of the people running NY nowadays sheesh
I used to raise these ants as a kid…had ant farms n such. Their interesting. I also discovered a couple colonies on my property. I'll take them over fire ants ANYDAY!!!
I have those in my yard there a secret cuz my famliy hate ants
this is me from the future i was lying lol
what's the music behind this?
how do i get rid of the little basterds !! i have about 9 colonies and they have become a nuesince
yes that was what someone told me they were but.. they arent fire ants.. fire ants are very small and have a huge mound
how can you tell the harvester ants from the exotic ones?
this account is probably abandoned and you probably already now but they are bigger and they have some with pretty big heads
where can I find red harvester ants mounds in Texas???
outside???
My back yard.
Jonathan Salazar everywhere
Unfortunately, in certain areas of Texas the Harvester Ant population has decreased dramatically. One big reason? Wherever there is a high fire ant population. They eventually take out the Harvester Ants because there are too many of them. Depending on where you live in Texas you might have to drive a bit but they're still out there, especially in the country.
No shortage of P. barbatus in the Panhandle, particularly the rolling plains region.
nice video. I've seen some big black in my grandfathers yard maybe about 3/4 of an inch big. never got them identified but they were some ugly critters
Probably wood ants
If this is a harvester ant then wtf is a fire ant? 😮
Red imported fire ants are an exotic invasive species and in many areas of Texas they have displaced other species of ants that are native to the state, including the these red harvester ants. But there are some species of fire ants that are native to Texas. Solenopsis geminata, the tropical fire ant, is the most common native fire ant species encountered. To the unaided eye, they are almost identical to red imported fire ants. fireant.tamu.edu/manage/faq/
skirts365 Try getting stung by a yellow harvester ant. Very painful.
im telling you now these things sting like hell. i'd say it feels pretty close to a yellow jacket sting. also they're nests ruin pastures. a dam nuisance!!