Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Fire Ants kill fish?! Educate me.

Just read in the June issue of the South Carolina Sportsman publication where "large consumptions will kill fish quickly". The reference is to the white-winged newbie's hatch and they fall into the water. Thus keep your pond banks clear of these nasty critters. I can think of 1,001 other reasons why to to do this other than protecting your fish, in which I have a hard time believing this is a real hazard to fish. Perhaps this is Mother Nature's natural selection and those fish ought to go anyway. Anyone ever heard of this? No doubt large consumptions of anything is bad - look at America's waistline! Anybody seen any credible research on this before I waste my time with a letter to the editor?!

I've heard of it. Hopefully DD1 will see this in the a.m.

I'll bet they can sting after ingestion. Cut one in half. The business end can still bite. Yeah, I just had to try it. However, like you, I doubt that enough hit the water to be a serious problem. What I don't know is whether the bite can really harm a fish. I guess an aquarium test would tell the answer. Texas is loaded with fire ants. I have them but rarely see a dead fish. And, with the exception of a flood, I never see them in the water.

IIRC, what I read said that after a flood, enough were washed into the water that BG died after eating too many. No mention of the size of the BG. Like Dave said, I doubt that it would be an everyday concern.

A friend of mine did some research in college I'll see if I can get a copy of his paper. What I can recall at the moment is the ants do bite the fish after ingestion and since Bluegill consume native species of ants they learn to avoid eating ants all together. Because of this they lose a food source.