ANDRED1101, in my research( books and mainly internet) i came across the south american leafcutters. here in north america we also have texas leafcutters(tx and la)and desert leafcutters(american southwest)same deal. in addition i did find that harvester ants ( western u.s) and allegheny mound ants (mid-atlantic states) chow down on leafy foliage. the info. regarding food and feeding habits vary between sites and appears as if leafy foliage is a minor foodstuff. the alleheny mound ant apparently can kill vegetation and young trees 2-5 years old and up to eight feet tall by depositing formic acid ( or something like that) near their mounds. study done in west virginia. with the knowledge and experience of contributors from this region such as jellyman, scott smith and others and nobody mentioned this, i suspect this must be incredibly rare. my efforts to find out exactly my specie of ant was somewhat unrewarded, but a ray of light may come from the local ext.office. wasu puts out a pamphlet identifying washingtons ants, will try to pick 1 up. i'm mainly worried about the mound so close to the tree rather than the stinkpots eating my leaves. we're in a cold rainy spell and the leaves look as though they may get a jumpstart on the ants as insect activity has been low. it sure appears as if they are eating leaves or at least chewing them and spitting them out. where the ants are still and then move when a cocked finger comes toward them, there is missing leaf and more interesting black stuff along the "eaten" part. i don't know if that is from saliva or other secretion they are leaving behind. the black stuff crumbles off when i touch it. in comparison to other insects chewing leaves on nearby cherries and apples-no black stuff. i observed two "still" ants with their little heads bobbing up and down the leaf as "eating". i do have carpenter ants but never saw any in a tree. gonna pick-up a magnifying glass and see if i can find out anything more revealing. this has now piqued my interest. JELLYMAN, you hit the nail on the head ! they are wildlife and as such i don't wish to kill them if it is unnecessary. i belive in a well balanced, healthy and interactive ecosystem. like smelling the roses, i rarely walk by an anthill without stooping over and watching them. just like your squirrels though, if it's the tree or the nest, i will be ruthless as they are not endangered as i know of 3 other mounds on my place. after watching a dog once dig up a mound in a few seconds ,i think i will just try and relocate the mound with some quick shoveling (soft mounds) away from the trees. the "dogs" mound showed back up a couple weeks afterwards about 20 feet from the original "carnage". same ants-i don't know but maybe i'll get lucky. this way no spray, although organic, may be needed if they relocate further away. as far as computer tapping goes, the biggest lesson i learned was never try to identify a specific ant specie on the net unless it is a carpenter ant or u know it's latin name in which case u don't need to search anyway. thanks guys ! wildlifeman

David said:"From what I've read, and there is not very much to read, this idea falls somewhere between idle speculation and an old wives tale. In any case it does not seem to be a documented crisis. There are 97 million head of cattle in the US with 14 million in Texas. If anyone knows of written reports of this stuff happening, I'd like to read about it. The TAMU list seems to go on and on - I didn't see anything like this but can't say it didn't happen." That is not old wives tales or idle speculation at all David, if not for fire ants there would be quite a few more head of cattle in Texas, and such a statement makes you look like someone with a closed mind, perhaps thinking that if you ignore the problem, it will go away. I would think that someone in your position would want to be more in touch with reality. No one said that it was a crisis, perhaps what constitutes a crisis depends upon whose ox gets gored. However it is a big enough of a problem to cause state and federal governments to spend money to try to eradicate or at least control them. The Discovery Channel recently had a very interesting program about some tiny parasitic flies that show promise in helping to control the ants, and were working with a group of Texas Ranchers who spent considerable money to buy and try the flies. Apparently they consider them a bit more of a problem than you do. Here is a link to an article that might hold your attention long enough to glean some facts. It also has links to other sites and articles of a similar nature, and a simple google search on fire ant damage will turn up many more. Bill P.

Mary, the carpenter ant from the article looks like the culprit, but I think I have harvester ants. they forage for plant material, don't appear to care for wood like the carpenter ant. i'll do research on harvester ants. don't know why I didn't find info on these ants when I was trying to find out what they were initially, maybe not the right search words or something. anyway, i'll research harvester ants today and see what will kill them.. when I find a solution i'll post my results... I'm gonna try the boiling water, also amdro - might as well make an experiment out of this problem so maybe others can benefit. there has been two swarms of these ants (winged) in my west side patio area, which is enclosed by a block wall and where my dog goes to potty. I've never seen such a swarm in my entire life, and I'm originally from the south where ants are very common. I sprayed the whole area and the ants with a product called "ant killer" that I bought at walmart (black gallon jug) and it will kill the ants, but only on contact. it worked well to kill the ants that were swarming. i'll post when I find a solution. Thanks again, everyone!! ya'll have been a big help. Debbie

If you know where their nest is, you could put diatomaceous (I probably spelled that wrong) earth on the entrance(s). This will kill any ants that cross it by damaging their exoskeleton. The disadvantages of this are that it will also kill any good guys that come across it, like lady bugs, etc. Also if you don't find all the entrances to the nest, the ants will just start using a different one once they realize that all the ants that go out the east entrance don't come back, or possibly even just dig a new entrance. But it would probably as least slow them down and weaken the colony. You can also use diatomaceous earth as a barrier, such as drawing a circle with it around your garden area, but again this will also kill good guys. Another thought I have, but this is just a wild guess, is that you might have success using a fungicide on your plants. Since the leaf cutter ants don't actually eat the plants, but eat a fungus that they grow on the composting leaves, it might prevent the fungus from growing and eventually starve the colony. For this to work, you'd probably have to treat everything within their range for a while, so it might not be worth the cost & effort. Good luck with fighting these guys. I've never seen them in action, don't think I've ever lived in an area where they are, but I've heard they can be very devastating. Casey