Can we talk about ants and termites?

Help Support CattleToday:

OK... now my "regenerative soil health" brain is kicking in. Obviously, the conditions are "right" for the critters to thrive right now. What DON'T they like for habitat? What works against them? What kind of plant species are found "where they aren't" vs. "where they are", etc. What are the soil conditions? What is the residue/cover conditions? You can't do much about the "climate" on the broad scale, but you might be able to do something on the "micro-climate" scale.

Reading about using tillage to destroy their earth workings.... I wonder what would happen if instead you put cattle on their workings at very high density... and let's say you actually FEED on them, by bale grazing or bale unrolling, through the winter months. That'd dramatically change the "micro-climate" and introduce heavy hoof disturbances at the same time. And then maybe even create a lane, where you would regularly run the cattle through these areas on the way to other areas? Do you have a "rainy season" when it gets muddy? Let the cattle muck these areas up badly by feeding right on them during those times. You've already lost the grass if you don't control the pest, how much harm could it do to POUND these areas by feeding on them in mud, adding organic matter and seed at the same time? And even if it's "desert" with no rainy season, still putting all that carbon down and all that hoof traffic in a concentrated way would be a really drastic environmental change from the "avoidance" situation that is happening now (because there's no grass there, there's also no animal traffic there to speak of, and dwindling organic matter in the soil).

It might even be that the "predators" that would normally function to "control" them, are absent, because of a lack of desireable habitat FOR THEM! Therefore, your "pest" critters are able to thrive undeterred. "Build it, and they will come!"

Just thinking outloud, and wondering what potential the animals could have on them... if managed differently. If the cattle pound their "habitat" severely, AND add in alot of organic matter to change the soil composition and biological component dramatically, it might just no longer be the proper "habitat" for them.

Build it (habitat that they prefer) and they will come... so change it into something that they DON'T like, and they will leave! We destroyed the habitat in conventional agriculture for most of the grassland birds... and they've all but disappeared. But if we build back their habitat, they will come back too, unless we've made them completely extinct.
Do a search on what eats termites. Improved, "clean", pastures are not go for any of those animals. There are a lot of birds on the list.
 
Something tells me that cattle stomping on them all the time and beating up their "home" will probably impair their ability to function some. If a tornado destroys your house enough times, you'll eventually run out of luck or move on.
 
Here's a link to a different study out near Spot and Bubby's location
Tom Green is actually the next county over from me. Post is a roadtrip.

We had a decent growing Reason. Everything we baled, we baled twice. And we got really lucky with rain, despite being dry more than we would have liked. Two BIG, long slow rains came at just the right time for Sudan we planted on terrace tops that the ants decimated earlier in the season with huge colonies just a few yards apart. We rotated cows through the Sudan and took them across the road and came back when the Sudan was about shoulder high. Cows were almost done grazing the first paddock when the termites came into that pasture. They devoured the grass almost as fast as we could get our cows on it. The cows, more or less, got the top 2/3 and the termites took the rest to the ground, leaving nothing.

I'll post apic. later.
 
Gotta remember that I'm suggesting POUNDING it with cattle heavily... a million pounds per acre heavy... not "grazing" as in a normal "graze". FEED them on those areas heavily, and see what they do. And again... I've got an unfair advantage here with cold... so not familiar with what you're dealing with... and you can KEEP them! ;) Silver... thought you said you don't have them either... up in B.C., I wouldn't think you would...
 
I was joking earlier, but aren't armadillos their natural predators? I was 13 years old when I saw my first one in Arkansas and had no clue what it was but my brother and I tied a rope around it and it would drag us around the place. We turned it loose in the school one morning and it cleared out the hallway.

After someone told us what it was, I looked it up in the World Book Encyclopedia and it said that they were native to Texas.
 
I was joking earlier, but aren't armadillos their natural predators? I was 13 years old when I saw my first one in Arkansas and had no clue what it was but my brother and I tied a rope around it and it would drag us around the place. We turned it loose in the school one morning and it cleared out the hallway.

After someone told us what it was, I looked it up in the World Book Encyclopedia and it said that they were native to Texas.
We made small square cornstalk bales for bedding... had an ice cream pail on the wagon that we'd put field mice in, and feed 'em to the cats... jump off the wagon and catch 'em on the go as we went. Took one to school with me and put it in the pencil drawer of the teacher's desk... jumped out on her lap when she opened it up, teacher and a whole room of girls standing up on their desks screaming! I was over in a corner cubicle trying to control my laughing... ended up snorting loudly... Ah... good times, good times!🤣
 
I didn't have a chance to get back there before dark, but What looked completly barren a few days ego is suddenly green, after a couple of days of drizzle. Clover, maybe? Something is coming up green where we planted the Sudan, too. I know we've had clover there in the past.

I'm still working on getting pics.
 
Gotta remember that I'm suggesting POUNDING it with cattle heavily... a million pounds per acre heavy... not "grazing" as in a normal "graze". FEED them on those areas heavily, and see what they do. And again... I've got an unfair advantage here with cold... so not familiar with what you're dealing with... and you can KEEP them! ;) Silver... thought you said you don't have them either... up in B.C., I wouldn't think you would...
Heaps of ants, no fire ants.
 

Latest posts

Top