<P> In the 1930s , colonies were accidentally introduced into the United States through the seaport of Mobile , Alabama . Despite earlier views that cargo ships from Brazil docking at Mobile unloaded goods infested with the ants , recent DNA research confirmed that the likely source population for all invasive S. invicta in the United States occurred at or near Formosa , Argentina , and virtually every analysis ruled out all sampled Brazilian populations as a potential source . Biologist E.O. Wilson says that he reported the first colony , in the Mobile area , when he was 13 . The ants then spread from Alabama to almost every state of the American South , from Texas to Maryland and a few other Mid-Atlantic states . Since the 1990s infestations have been reported in New Mexico and parts of Arizona in the Southwest . They have also been reported in California in the West , but probably arrived via ship or truck rather than by spreading . In a similar way , the ants were accidentally introduced into Australia in 2001 . </P>
<P> In the 1930s , colonies were accidentally introduced into the United States through the seaport of Mobile , Alabama . Despite earlier views that cargo ships from Brazil docking at Mobile unloaded goods infested with the ants , recent DNA research confirmed that the likely source population for all invasive S. invicta in the United States occurred at or near Formosa , Argentina , and virtually every analysis ruled out all sampled Brazilian populations as a potential source . Biologist E.O. Wilson says that he reported the first colony , in the Mobile area , when he was 13 . The ants then spread from Alabama to almost every state of the American South , from Texas to Maryland and a few other Mid-Atlantic states . Since the 1990s infestations have been reported in New Mexico and parts of Arizona in the Southwest . They have also been reported in California in the West , but probably arrived via ship or truck rather than by spreading . In a similar way , the ants were accidentally introduced into Australia in 2001 . </P>
when did fire ants come to the us
when did fire ants come to the us
1930s
1930s