Some recent studies have shown that fire ants are a major cause of quail chick mortality except it isn't what you think. The ants consume the small micro invertebrates that quail chicks need to eat before they grow big enough for grasshopper sized food. When fire ants were controlled on thousand acre sized areas, quail recruitment rose dramatically. The same problem has caused recruitment failures with Attwater Prairie chickens on the refuge at Eagle Lake. Several thousand lbs. of ant bait was donated and a large area treated to help this endangered species survive.
At least in my Central TX area, fire ants have reduced the tick population substantualy and the quail in large part have also disappeared. A lot of the quail problem is the coastal Bermuda grass/cow culture pasture conversion but not all of it.
