Baldwin County Agent and Volunteers Reunite Two Bitter Enemies

Auburn, June 4, 2002 --- For the first time in decades, two fierce enemies, fire ants and 
phorid flies, have been reunited in the very region where fire ants first gained a toehold in the 
United States in the 1930s. 
Credit for this reunion goes to Marla Faver, Baldwin County Extension agent, who worked 
closely with Dr. Fudd Graham, coordinator of Alabama Fire Ant Management Program to 
introduce the flies.  
The tiny phorid fly, no bigger than the head of a straight pin, preys on the ants in the 
goriest manner imaginable.  After a fly lays her egg in a fire ant, the emerging larvae makes its 
way into the ant’s head, eating out the inside of it.  Eventually, the head rolls off and out emerges 
a new fly.
Then the macabre cycle of egg laying and decapitation begins again.
	Ants that are not killed are so terrified by the flies that they cower for safety in their 
mounds, which reduces their ability to forage for food.  Ant populations decline and mounds begin 
dying out.
Phorid flies were first introduced to Alabama in 1998 as part of a regional project aimed 
at controlling fire-ant populations throughout the South.  The project is the brainchild of Dr. 
Sanford Porter, a Florida-based USDA researcher who spent years studying the phorid fly in 
South America before obtaining permission to introduce them into the United States.
The flies already have been successfully introduced in Macon, Lowndes, Talladega and 
Houston counties.  
The Alabama Cooperative Extension System is one of the sponsors of the Fire Ant 
Management Program, which is coordinating the introduction of phorid flies throughout Alabama.  
Extension agents have played a pivotal role from the very beginning by helping introduce the flies 
into their counties.
The Baldwin County release, which occurred on May 2 in Elsanor, turned out to be a 
huge media event covered by every newspaper and television station in the region.
The Baldwin County project marks the first time Master Gardener volunteers have helped 
with the introduction of the flies.   Master Gardeners are local volunteers who train with Extension 
agents, such as Faver, to carry out local horticultural projects and related efforts.
“They’re the ones who deserve credit for going out in the heat of the day and releasing 
the flies – a seven-day-a-week chore for the initial two weeks of the project,” Faver says.
“This represents an entirely new field for Master Gardeners,” she says. “They’re really 
excited about the project and satisfied that they are involved in a something of such immense 
economic importance to the Gulf Coast region.” 
Faver hopes the involvement of Master Gardeners will serve as a model for other Phorid 
fly projects in other parts of the state. 
Faver says she also received “tremendous” support from the Gulf Coast farming 
community. 
While conceding the flies will never eradicate fire ants completely, Faver and Graham 
hope they will help reduce fire-ant populations to manageable levels.  
When fire ants were first introduced more than 70 years ago in Mobile Bay, there were no 
natural predators to stop them.  Even worse, pesticides proved only marginally effective.  Treated 
areas are rid of the ants for only a few months before aspiring fire-ant queens, known as 
reproductives, fly in, burrow into the soil and begin establishing new mounds.
Currently, there are between 60 and 80 fire-ant mounds per acre in Alabama, Faver says.  
By reducing the number of these mounds, she believes the Phorid flies could help reduce the 
mounds to numbers comparable to South America, which average about 10 mounds per acre.
“The project may take years to have an impact on fire-ant populations, but we think it may 
eventually mean steep reductions in pesticide use,” Faver says.  “It will also bring improvements 
in the quality of life because people can go out and enjoy nature without having to worry so much 
about fire ants.” 
(Source: Marla Faver, Baldwin County Extension Agent, 251-937-7176)