Bill Oliver

Region: Hill Country

Topics: Wildlife, Habitat, Music, Education

 

Written / sung comments:

Queen Invicta

She stepped off of the boat in Mobile, Alabama
Sometime back in the thirties from her home in deep Brazil
She had six legs and a stinger, fire in her eyes
And the ability to recreate herself a billion times

She didn't plan to come here, to become chaotic
Imported and exotic, she came against her will
She stalked the Southern states, from Florida to Texas
Gained a reputation as the Queen Ant of the Hill

Refrain
And they call her Queen Invicta (Ouch!)
Fire Ant Invincible (Ouch!)
Nothing here could stop her (Ouch!)
Predator or chemical

The horror stories then grew, like nutria and kudzu
Nobody knew what to do, to stop the fiery tide
And they sprayed the land with chlordane
They sprayed the land with Heptachlor
They sprayed the land with Mirex, but the ant refused to die

Puzzled entomologists, chemists and biologists
Bureaucrat apologists still wondered what to do
For climbing up the food chain, came Heptachlor and chlordane
The fire ants would remain, the chemicals would, too

(Refrain)
Pesticides persistent, created ants resistant
Eliminated natural foes, going about their business
The cure employed to hit them became worse than the symptom
The efforts to eradicate threatened the whole system

So they banned the searing spray,
And they banned the deadly dust
Before they bring the Silent Spring springing up on us
This much we can say, the ant is here to stay
The final bill of over-kill is much to high to pay

(Refrain)
You who live in cities, you who live in neighborhoods
Fire ants, it's understood, may come and take their stand
The males that die in nuptials, the queens that come in multiples,
The fire ant, combustible, is hard to understand

In backyards it's no picnic, but think before you panic
This isn't the Titanic: don't give up the land

The poison preparations, blind exterminations
Research the implications, analyze your goal
Reactions based on bedlam may only serve to spread them
To some extent accept them, search for safe control

They call her Queen Invicta (Ouch!)
Fire Ant Invincible (Ouch!)
In our quest to stop her (Ouch!)
Let us first be sensible (Ouch!) (Ouch!) (Ouch!)

Don't Burn Down the Farm
(To Get Rid of the Ants)
There's a saying in the country
That makes sense to country cats
Don't burn down the barn
To get rid of the rats
The same applies to pesticides
Applied to soil and plants
Don't Burn Down the Farm
To Get Rid of the Ants

Don't Burn Down the Farm
To Get Rid of the Ants
In your quest to kill a pest
Don't poison your own nest
Learn the way of nature's will
Before you spray and over-kill
Don't Burn Down the Farm
To Get Rid of the Ants

In the backyard garden,
In flower beds and shrubs
There's a world that works together
In the family of bugs
Like the bees that carry pollen
To fertilize the flowers
And the ladybugs that save the leaves
From the aphids they devour

The stalking praying mantis
Is a working walking stick
Picking off the pesky pests
From vegetables you pick
Even the red fire ant is not so bad and evil
When it helps out the cotton plants
By eating the boll weevil

Don't Burn Down the Farm
To Get Rid of the Ants
In your quest to kill a pest
Don't run off a good quest
Learn the way of nature's will,
Before you spray and over-kill
Don't Burn Down the Farm
To Get Rid of the Ants

Nature has an order
In her own organic best
In the words of nature
There is no such word as pest
Pesticides are poisons
For producing the quick fix
Pesticides won't help you
If you're using the wrong mix

Don't Burn Down the Farm
To Get Rid of the Ants
You kill the friendly critters, too,
While poisoning the pests
Learn the way of nature's will,
Before you spray and over-kill
Don't Burn Down the Farm
To Get Rid of the Ants