Are fire ants beneficial or detrimental to my garden?

[bananabat]

S'okay:

I passionately hate fire ants; nasty, invasive, over-aggressive monsters that they are. Today, I found a bunch of 'em setting up shop in my garden, but I hesitate to kill them. Why?

Well, I've toured a vineyard not far from where I live. There I learned that they actually encourage as many fire ants to live around the grape vines as possible because the ants improve the soil (The tour guide said something about aerating the soil and maybe some more, it was awhile ago).

I'd really like to kill them. Can anybody give me a real reason they should go? If there's a chance they will help my garden, I'll let them stay. My vegetables and the ants, together, will grow and become stronger. Then, when my veggies are harvested, I'll murder the ants.

[bananabat]

Well, sorry. I was lazy and posted here before doing any research on my own and it looks like fire ants are bad news, indeed. It's strange they'd use 'em at a vineyard, though. Maybe they just know how to curb some of their nastier mal effects?

[applestar]

Interesting.... Fire ants seem to have *some* beneficial qualities, but their negatives appear to outweigh the positive in most circumstances. These websites list instances in which fire ants are considered beneficial, as well as nuisance:

https://fireants.utk.edu/Webpages/Agricultcontrolpage.htm
"Field Crops and Commercial Vegetables

Red imported fire ants are considered beneficial insects in cotton and sugarcane production, and control is not recommended. In cotton fields, fire ants are effective predators of boll weevils.
...
Fruit and Nut Orchards, vineyards
and Blueberry Plantings

... In pecan orchards, fire ants prey on pests such as pecan weevils and hickory shuckworms; however, they can encourage aphids by preying on their natural enemies. The ants' nest building aerates the soil of the orchard floor, which is beneficial "

https://www.ag.auburn.edu/aaes/communications/highlights/spring00/fireant.html
"Results from this study suggest that fire ants are important predators of several key pests of Alabama crops; in other words, the more fire ants foraging in the foliage of soybean and cotton plants, the fewer insect pests found, including some of the most serious pests of these crops (Table 1).
...
AAES research also reveals, however, that fire ants attack and consume other beneficial insects and arthropods. Fire ants reduced the densities of 15 important types of beneficial insects and arthropods in at least one of the two crops studied (Table 2)
...
AAES researchers are currently constructing statistical models of the food webs involving red imported fire ants in Alabama agricultural crops.
...
These models indicate that red imported fire ants are important predators that suppress populations of insect pests in agricultural crops, but these models also suggest that the impact of fire ants on other beneficial insects can be far more powerful than their impact on pests.

In the summer of 2000 AAES research will experimentally test these models"

--- I wonder what they concluded from the 2000 study?

[rainbowgardener]

Nice informative, thoughtful post, Applestar!

Sounds like the fire ants consume everything in their path, good guys and bad guys. To me this sounds like breaking the web of life, not a good thing. They perhaps aren't as bad in monoculture, chemical growing situations, because in that situation, they aren't relying on beneficials anyway, just chemically zapping the bad guys. So the fire ants come in and they have an insect monoculture to go with the plant one. But sounds like basically a disaster if you are trying to grow a natural, diverse, organic garden and support the beneficial insects.

I'm glad I don't live where there are fire ants!

[bananabat]

Very informative, applestar. Thanks!

Sounds like the fire ants consume everything in their path, good guys and bad guys. To me this sounds like breaking the web of life, not a good thing.

I blame fire ants for my childhood completely lacking in horny toads and harvester ants (way way cooler).