A phorid fly (left), Pseudacteon cultellatus, about 1 mm long, and a red imported fire ant (right), Solenopsis invicta, about 3 mm long. The fly can lay eggs inside the ant’s head.

Gilbert is also working with ranchers to help them learn how to infest their own fire ant colonies with phorid flies. He began the initiative in 2005 with ranchers from Bee County, Texas.

Phorid flies, a diverse group of parasitoids, have emerged as promising agents for the biological control of invasive ant species. These specialised dipterans locate their ant hosts using a ...

When the flies attack, the ants release a phorid-alert pheromone to warn other workers in the vicinity. In response, nearby ants enter a motionless, catatonic state and overall colony activity ...

A phorid fly (left), Pseudacteon cultellatus, about 1 mm long, and a red imported fire ant (right), Solenopsis invicta, about 3 mm long. The fly can lay eggs inside the ant’s head.

A phorid fly emerges from the head of a decapitated fire ant. And finally, an option not available for purchase but spotlights one of fire ants’ arch nemeses: Ant-Decapitating Flies.

The flies are just fractions of an inch (1 to 3 millimeters) long — as tall as a nickel — and smaller than the ant's giant head. They only dine on trap-jaw ants (Odontomachus).

Chemical treatments are only temporarily effective. The phorid fly helps keep the ants under control in Brazil and Argentina, where infestation levels are far lower than they are in the United States.

The Agriculture Department, which claims the gnat-like phorid fly is of no danger to anybody or anything other than fire ants, announced plans Wednesday to release hundreds of thousands of them in ...

Researchers at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory (BFL) have released multiple species of the parasitic flies, originally from Brazil and Argentina, to control invasive fire ants without pesticides.