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I agree, the map is not representative of fire ant distribution - there are no fire ants at all in northern New Mexico. The latest survey from the USDA is here: http://pest.ceris.purdue.edu/searchmap.php?selectName=ISASAZA |
I agree, the map is not representative of fire ant distribution - there are no fire ants at all in northern New Mexico. The latest survey from the USDA is here: http://pest.ceris.purdue.edu/searchmap.php?selectName=ISASAZA |
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Being from the south, I know well what fire ants looks like, and can tell you the red areas on the map don't necessarily represent the fire ant range (I live well south of the red line on this map, and can tell you there are no fire ants between here and Colorado). I think a combination of the map I posted and the one posted above would be much more appropriate, with only confirmed ranges red. [[Special:Contributions/75.161.5.14|75.161.5.14]] ([[User talk:75.161.5.14|talk]]) 02:23, 3 December 2008 (UTC) |
Being from the south, I know well what fire ants looks like, and can tell you the red areas on the map don't necessarily represent the fire ant range (I live well south of the red line on this map, and can tell you there are no fire ants between here and Colorado). I think a combination of the map I posted and the one posted above would be much more appropriate, with only confirmed ranges red. [[Special:Contributions/75.161.5.14|75.161.5.14]] ([[User talk:75.161.5.14|talk]]) 02:23, 3 December 2008 (UTC) |
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==Assessment== |
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There are still many statements in the article which are counter-intuitive and ought really to have citations, e.g. "mounds appear suddenly, seemingly overnight"; "rarely life threatening" immediately before "80 deaths"; "apparently attracted to electrical equipment" followed by "not been found that electric or magnetic fields attract the ants". These are just examples, the article would benefit from many more inline cites than it currently has. [[User:DrKiernan|DrKiernan]] ([[User talk:DrKiernan|talk]]) 17:38, 13 February 2009 (UTC) |
Revision as of 17:38, 13 February 2009
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POV
This article has an inexcusable POV title: it is not "imported" in the species' native range, and the title should reflect its native context, not its context as a pest species in countries where it is introduced. Ditto for the text as a whole, which needs a lot more balance and information about its natural ecology in its native region - MPF 23:03, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
- Unfortunately, it appears that entomologists acknowlege the common name "red imported fire ant". It's all over the Web, along with its taxonomic name. Ditto for Black imported fire ant, which is part of a group that includes S. geminata, S. invicta, S. richteri, S. saevissima and S. xyloni. The title should stay as-is, but the article could explicitly state that the common name is, well, common, and not a biased view of the authors. It should also be rewritten to be neutral or present a more global point of view. --QuicksilverT @ 20:19, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
Capitalization
The article contains inconsistencies concerning the capitalization. For example, the article title is “Red imported fire ant” (lowercase) while the first five words in the introduction are “the Red Imported Fire Ant” (uppercase). Web searches do not help with my decision-making because I am receiving mixed results, although most either are all lowercase (i.e. red imported fire ant) or have all first letters of words in uppercase (i.e. Red Imported Fire Ant). For some more consistency, which one should we go with? --HeteroZellous 22:32, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
- Because nobody has replied within 10 days, I have proceeded to change the capitalization to favour the all-lowercase, which I presume is the article title. --HeteroZellous 00:51, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
references
started that this article doesn't cite any sources (I just added the first one, as far as I can tell), yet another publication used the article as a reference. Is that upsetting to anyone else? --
Mikeblas 22:05, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
Merge with Fire Ant
It appears that the fire ant article refers to the genus to which the RIFA belongs. As far as I can tell, it's standard to have a separate article for genera and species within a particular genus, so I'm removing this tag. Gimme danger 05:07, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
Mississippi?
Someone just removed Mississippi from the list of states in which the RIFA lives. I can't see why, I'm going to revert it. Gimme danger 00:02, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
Hot? take a chill stupid dog...?
"The worst damage usually occurs during hot, dry weather when they invade flowerbeds while seeking warmth and moisture." Wtf? -b 01:13, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
Picture of a nest?
Can someone add a photo of a fire ant nest? Perhaps even a before/after showing that an innocuous mound of dirt turns into a seething mass of pissed off ants within seconds if the nest is stepped on, unlike other ants. Gront (talk) 07:43, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
Dead Links
Reference # 9 is no longer available on the CNN site. Fasulo (talk) 01:31, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
"News about Extermination in China" external reference is no longer available. Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 19:24, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
U.S. Distribution Map for Real?
I would like to know the origin of the U.S. distribution map on the WP article. I have been updating the UF/IFAS Featured Creatures publication on this species and I am almost 100% sure the map on the WP page reflects an older potential U.S. distribution. Current potential distribution has the RIFA going right up the West Coast. However, the RIFA infestation in California, to my knowledge, is limited to the southern part of that state, unlike what is seen on the map. Plus, there are no reports, that I am aware of, of RIFA in Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia or Maryland. I could not find supporting information on the USDA sites. If this is true, and the species is continually spreading, would someone point me to the source of this distribution information? Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 19:35, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
I contacted Dr. Dave Williams who headed up the RIFA program at the Gainesville, FL USDA lab, which is the USDA headquarters for this program. Dave is now retired from the USDA but works out of an office in my Entomology Department at UF and is still involved with RIFA. Dave confirmed that RIFA is in VA and MD, but he had not heard of any large populations in the San Francisco area. He stated, "Maybe a few colonies have been found but to say that a large number of fire ants are in this area is not correct unless there has been a big change in the California RIFA populations that I'm not aware of." I still question the broad red brush for Arizona and New Mexico and would welcome official confirmation of this. Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 00:35, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
OK, there is a USDA October 2007 map for RIFA distribution: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/fireants/downloads/fireant.pdf The page this comes from is at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/fireants/index.shtml which lists New Mexico, but not Arizona, Maryland and Virginia under Latest Quarantine Changes (dated March 2008). Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 00:57, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
Me again. I contacted RIFA researchers and they told me something I should have known. There are political reason for not formally listing a state as having RIFA. I should have understood this as the same thing takes place regarding the Africanized bee. So Maryland and Virginia do have mounds, but these are not excessive in numbers right now. Same for New Mexico and the San Francisco area. However, the map depicted in the article showing a broad swath of red is not completely correct. Plus Arizona is not know to have RIFA as yet. I do not want to get involved in editing the article (at least not yet), as I have my own RIFA article to keep up, but care should be taken when reporting where the RIFA is.Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 11:58, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
I agree, the map is not representative of fire ant distribution - there are no fire ants at all in northern New Mexico. The latest survey from the USDA is here: http://pest.ceris.purdue.edu/searchmap.php?selectName=ISASAZA Being from the south, I know well what fire ants looks like, and can tell you the red areas on the map don't necessarily represent the fire ant range (I live well south of the red line on this map, and can tell you there are no fire ants between here and Colorado). I think a combination of the map I posted and the one posted above would be much more appropriate, with only confirmed ranges red. 75.161.5.14 (talk) 02:23, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
Assessment
There are still many statements in the article which are counter-intuitive and ought really to have citations, e.g. "mounds appear suddenly, seemingly overnight"; "rarely life threatening" immediately before "80 deaths"; "apparently attracted to electrical equipment" followed by "not been found that electric or magnetic fields attract the ants". These are just examples, the article would benefit from many more inline cites than it currently has. DrKiernan (talk) 17:38, 13 February 2009 (UTC)