Gonna get my .02 in here. Kyotee1 should know what the stats on the bobwhite as good as anybody. The main reason for the decline of the bobwhite is habitat. Fire ants has and is having little to do with their decline, according to Texas A&M research and the TP&WD! Predation is also another factor. But habitat is the main cause according to the articles that James has posted here. The first sentence tells all!!

Quail Management on Small Acreages

Deterioration and fragmentation of bobwhite habitat are the primary causes of the bobwhite decline throughout the United States. Fragmentation is the process where habitat elimination separates or isolates remaining areas of habitat. Recent scientific information indicates quail populations may need enough contiguous habitat to support at least 800 quail to prevent localized extinction over the long term. The area required to support 800 quail probably ranges from 800 to 8,000 acres, depending upon the quality of the habitat.

"Most landowners interested in quail do not own several thousand acres of habitat, so should they give up? No, quail management is not hopeless, but it is not easy either," explained Mike Porter, a wildlife specialist with the Ardmore-based Noble Foundation. "A landowner with a relatively small tract, such as 160 acres, should manage the tract so every bit of it, or at least as much as possible, is quail habitat. A 160-acre tract with 50 acres of oak woodlot, 60 acres of Bermuda grass, 40 acres of wheat, and 10 acres of native rangeland does not have 160 acres of quail habitat. In fact, this quarter section has very little quail habitat."

Ideal quail habitat has 5 to 15 percent woody canopy cover well distributed across the landscape, with mostly brushy woody cover rather than timber. It has no locations where quail could venture farther than 100 yards from woody cover. The herbaceous plant community is dominated by native plants rather than introduced species. More than 250 clumps of native bunch grasses exist per acre. Forbs are abundant. Canopy cover of herbaceous plants ranges from 25 to 75 percent, with most herbaceous plants 10 to 20 inches tall. Underneath the canopy of woody and herbaceous plants, 30 to 60 percent of the ground is bare (lacking plant thatch or stems). The amount of quail habitat present on a tract of land depends on how much of the land matches this description.

No mention of the fire ant anywhere, not even in Texas. Matter of fact the hotter and dryer it gets the less you will see the fire ant. It also has to have a habitat of moisture.