DEADLY ANTS

As in last year's Killer Whales, Simon plays up his subject's sensationalism to get attention, but then plays it straight and comes through with legitimate information. Of the two species featured here, the fierce red fire ants which came up from Brazil in the 1940s threaten crops in the South--but ""perhaps the greatest damage from fire ants comes from the human efforts to fight them."" Insecticides used are dangerous to other species including humans and don't work anyway; perhaps importing enemies or jamming fire ants' ""odor signals"" will eventually help to control them. As for the less bothersome army ants, there is ""very little truth"" in the famous story ""Leiningen Versus the Ants,"" but the raiding swarms when millions of ants march together do consume all small animals in their way and any large ones that don't run off. With a few closing words on ""other kinds of ants that you might want to avoid,"" unexceptionable and undemanding.