Fire ants cost Texas farms $236 million a year

A recent study in rural Texas allowed respondents to estimate not only the damage from red imported fire ants, but also to calculate benefits as well, according to a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station economist. Agricultural producers in a 54-county area in East, Central and Northeast Texas reported an average total cost of $1,691.41 per farm, for a total cost of nearly $94 million, said Dr. Curtis Lard of College Station.

Extrapolating that cost statewide would mean that fire ants cost Texas an estimated $236.5 million, he said. This has increased from the $90.5 million in fire ant costs projected from the last survey that was conducted 1999 and published in 2001. "It shows that we still have significant losses from fire ants," he said.

But respondents estimated benefits of fire ants were $6.5 million in the surveyed area. That would total about $16.5 million in benefits statewide, Lard said.

More than 1,000 farmers and ranchers were asked their perceptions about the impact of red imported fire ants. The survey was the most comprehensive study of its kind in the U.S., Lard said, and it was tacked on to the regular agricultural production survey conducted every year by the Texas Agricultural Statistics Service. Some of the commodities covered in the survey were cotton, grain, timber, hay, beef cattle, sheep and goats, short-rotation woody crops and poultry.

Costs included:

• Homestead damage. Fire ant damage to electrical switchboxes and heating and cooling units totaled $393,147, or $388 per farm.
• Repair or replacement of equipment. That figure was $281,000 for the surved area, or $278 per farm. According to the survey report, the costs included replacing or repairing broken parts on shredders, combines, tractors, well pumps, mowers, solar fence chargers and wheel bearings.
• Production losses. These were lower than those in the 1999 survey. Respondents reported about $267,000, or $264 per farm, in production losses. In 1999, these production losses were about $360 per farm. That included damage to trees, forage, hay, pastures, vegetables and fence posts, and injuries to livestock.

- Source: Texas A&M Press Release