Little fire ant

[paidmydues]

If you're on Maui,Wednesday,JAN.8, at 5 pm,MC Coy theater at the MACC,presentation of a video made to educate everyone in Hawai'i about the threat posed by this  tiny invasive ant.It will be shown on other islands also; O'ahu,Jan 13,cafe Julia,YWCA,4.30 pm;Kaua'i,Jan 18,KCC Performing Arts Center,5pm;Hilo and Kona TBD. If unable to attend and want to know (a little) more,I can answer briefly.

[paidmydues]

OK,so Maui turn out from the Surfing/SUP community,pretty poor,I only saw a handful of surfers,no SUP guys.Yet many derive their income from land related or visitor related activities.If that ant gets a foothold here,that is toast or impacted seriously.The video will be shown on KITV :Saturday,Jan 11 @ 6.30 pm;Sunday,Jan 12 @ 9 am;Sunday,Jan 19 @ 4pm;Monday,Jan 20 @ 10.30pm.Please make an effort to watch it.People on the Big Island have lost their income totally from this pest.It's too late for the Big Island,but we can stop it from getting established here,only through diligence. It has to be coming from the general population,not through government.If you live on Maui,or visit here regularly,this concerns you.When you buy plants ,quarantine them in a safe place(not your yard),dip a chopstick in peanut butter,put it somewhere on the plant,wait about 45 minutes.The little fire ant loves peanut butter,they will be all over it .They are minuscule.If you see any tiny red things,put the chopstick in a ziplock bag,freeze it,and call the department of agriculture.My friends did this a couple of weeks ago after buying hapu'u ferns from Lowes or Home Depot,I can't recall. Anyway,they found some,which is very scary.So far,not all the hapu'u sold has been recovered.Most of the plants sold in stores(and exported to the mainland,as well as cut flowers) come from the Big Island,where the ant is out of control.Sorry for the long post,but this is serious shit.`This ant has invaded  in the Pacific Tahiti,Hawai'i Island,Tuvalu,Guam,Papua New Guinea,Wallis,Futuna,Solomon Islands,Vanuatu,Galapagos,New Caledonia.Let's keep it out of Maui.Mahalo for reading .

[paidmydues]

[paddlinglass]

They are little bastards.  And if you've been bitten you know
they are appropriately named.

I had success pouring hot water in their nests  (ant hills).

[paidmydues]

these are not the same as the bigger ones that make ant hills and that you can kill off with boiling water.I grew up with those,they hurt,but only for a little while.These little ones are not killed off with such an easy fix,it's virtually impossible to eradicate them once they are established,hence the need to be vigilant for us here on Maui.And the pain and itch that these inflict last for days,often become infected ,and turn into staph infections.

[SUP-poser]

I live on the Big Island and grew up in Piihonua with John Cross who's featured in the piece. I haven't encountered the LFA's yet, and didn't understand how awful they are till seeing this exposé on TV. The reports of blinded pets and Tahitian families forced to abandon their homes because of these ants are heartbreaking. After the advent of the coqui frog nuisance and the astonishing actions of the dimwit who helicoptered the axis deer over here this is serious salt in the wound, and makes other invasives seem benign in comparison. Good luck to Maui, I really hope you guys have a shot at stopping these things and undertake permanent measures to prevent future invasive arrivals on the island. All for some exotic palms from Latin America!

[paidmydues]

I did the translating of Tahitian and French in Tahiti.There is a lot more to this that did not make it into the final cut,some heartbreaking stories of ruined crops and loss of livelihood,loss of safe places to evacuate children from schools in case of tsunami,etc...We need more agricultural inspectors,and new shipping rules of accountability to protect us.

[SUP-poser]

I don't suppose it's possible that bait strategies have had any success? Johnny and others said the LFA's love peanut butter. I know the colonies have multiple queens, still I wonder if some sort of bait poison along the lines of the "trojan horse" commercial baits for roaches, ants, and other insects which kill colonies after the toxins are borne back into the colony by workers to where the queens reside would be effective. I find it so hard to accept the notion that the ants are here to stay.

I seem to remember hearing about and even seeing operations on the mainland combating fire ants with fleets of ag-planes spraying the countryside in formation. This would seem to be a somewhat "blunt" approach, but I suppose the right sort of chemical application targeting known infestations could also succeed with minimal environmental harm and damage to non-target species.

[SeaMe]

Do they have any natural predators? It seems they must otherwise they would have taken over Brazil.

[paidmydues]

Amdro works,but rain renders it ineffective,and the product will eventually leach into aquifer or ocean I'm told.Amdro is also too big for the ants to carry back effectively.And the colonies can go arboreal or terrestrial very easily.

[SUP-poser]

Do they have any natural predators?

Anteaters? I guess they'd help a bit, seems far-fetched though.

[DavidJohn]

I like this.. 

[stoneaxe]

Terrible problem but that vid is too effing cool. Now I need an aluminum forge.... . We don't have fire ants but I want to make one of those sculptures.