OK, OK, gotta weigh in here. Thirty-some years ago I brought a
trailer-load of my honeybee colonies from Minnesnowta to overwinter on some
ranch land about 60 miles north of Houston, Texas. Fire ant mounds were
all over the pastures. I said to the rancher who kindly let me put my
hives on his land, "Don't you just hate those fire ants?" Well, no, was
the reply. Since the fire ants had moved in, the ranchers there no longer
had to "dip" their cattle to remove the ticks and mites that tormented them
and carried diseases. Seems that the fire ant colonies all but eliminated
the ticks and mites while they were still on the ground. I can't quote any
peer-reviewed scientific publications on this, but that's what the rancher
said. But he also added that the fire ants were murder on the young of
ground-nesting birds such as quail.
Another non-Minnesota critter that was very common down there was the
black widow spider. They liked to hide in the hand-holds cut into the
sides and ends of the bee boxes, and one had to be, well, kinda careful
before picking up a hive body. They also nested on the undersides of the
hive pallets that the more mechanized beekeepers used. I'm sure thousands
of black widow spiders inadvertently made their way to MN and the Dakotas
on the semi-loads of bees trucked up each year from the south. But our
northern winters eliminated any survivors here by November or December. It
was a one-way trip.
Digest Dean
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