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Midsouth Entomologist

Abstract

Ten Christmas tree farms were selected as research sites across Mississippi. At each site a 10-percent inventory was established. Plots were chosen randomly, and all imported fire ant (IFA) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae, Solenopsis spp.) mound positions inside the plot boundaries were captured as global positioning system (GPS) points. Mound points, along with their corresponding volumes (cm3), were recorded and uploaded into ESRI® ArcMap for analysis. Thirteen variables were selected to represent the heterogeneity of these landscapes. Among those variables, the species, height, and diameter of every Christmas tree located inside a plot were recorded, along with average grass height, distance to nearest mound, and other ant species collected within the plot. These data were then analyzed by using analysis of variance and linear regression statistics to determine which variables were significantly related to mound density, mound volume, or both. The statistically significant variables were then subjected to ordinary kriging, a geo-statistical spatial interpolation method. Ordinary kriging was used to illustrate the influence of significant variables in predicting IFA mound distribution. Out of the 13 variables collected and analyzed on each farm, grass height was the only variable significantly related to mound density and volume suitable for use in kriging analysis. All kriging results therefore only included average grass height and average mound volume. For the majority of sites, all larger mounds were clustered in taller grass, while the smaller mounds were scattered across larger areas of shorter grass.

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