2006 Annual Report 4d.Progress report. This report serves to document research conducted under a Specific Cooperative Agreement between ARS and Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi. Additional details of the research can be found in the inhouse project 0500-00014-00D, Area-Wide Fire Ant Suppression Projet: Demonstration Site in Mississippi. The USDA-ARS demonstration project for the suppression of imported fire ants has entered its sixth year. In 2005, Mississippi State University joined the project monitoring sites in Clay and Grenada Counties. Two additional sites located in Oktibbeha County were incorporated into the Mississippi project. The Areawide project integrates biological control agents with the chemical bait products hydromethylnon and methoprene. Mississippi's involvement in the project has focused on black/hybrid imported fire ants. The following is a report on the status of the USDA-ARS Areawide Suppression of Fire Ants Demonstration Project in Mississippi as of 2005. Amendments to the 2005 protocol reduced monitoring from 50 to 25 (0.1ha) plots: 10 plots in the treated areas and 15 in the boundaries. The amendment for 2005 also called for additional smaller (satellite) monitoring sites. The new sites include the MSU Golf Course and the Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Oktibbeha County, with 10 and 18 (0.1ha) plots, respectively. Mound counts and hotdog bait attractants were conducted every sampling period with pitfall samples collected only in the spring and fall except in satellite areas. Prima and Memorial Gardens Cemetery exceeded the reapplication threshold and were treated in October 2005. A total of 12 ant species has been identified at the project sites. At this time no new formicid species have been captured. Pitfall samples from the additional sites in Oktibbeha County have not been sorted at this time. In April 2004, 275 mounds were provided with 5, 8, or 25 grams of Thelohania infected brood. In the fall of 2004, a single mound with Thelohania-infected workers was recovered at Knox. The mound was originally challenged with 8 grams of infected brood. Follow-up sampling of all active mounds located in monitored plots, in May 2005, did not yield any infected colonies. No inoculation attempts were made in 2005. In 2004 P. litoralis Borgmeier was released at Knox Farms in Clay County, Mississippi. P. litoralis was not found after 11 survey days in the fall of 2004 and four survey days in the spring of 2005. No additional releases of P. curvatus or P. litoralis were made in 2005. P. curvatus, as of June 2006, has dispersed to occupy an ellipsoidal area over 1,639,669 ha or 4,049,984 acres.