Help Fight Little Fire Ants During ‘Stop The Ant Month’
Little fire ants have plagued the islands for years. Now the state is calling on residents to help in the war against the insects.
The Hawaii Invasive Species Council hopes to once again enlist the help of residents to find and contain colonies of stinging little fire ants.
The interagency invasive species group is asking residents across the islands to test colonies of ants and send in samples to their local invasive species committees to help identify colonies before they become entrenched.
Communities around the state have raised serious concerns about the stinging ants’ impacts, concerned they might become a permanent fixture on Hawaii’s landscape. There are several detections every year, most recently on Kauai, Oahu and Maui.
“Detecting and controlling invasive ants is one of the most important things we can do for our natural areas, our outdoor lifestyle, and our local economy,” DLNR director Dawn Chang .
The state is now asking that residents pitch in to help, by testing suspected colonies with homemade ant-collection kits. The state will also provide free
The website includes instructions on how to collect, freeze and submit ants for identification, which can be dropped off or mailed to invasive species councils statewide. The samples can also be sent to Hawaii Ant Lab, which has offices on the Big Island and Oahu.
LFA are considered among the worst invasive species worldwide, able to form in colonies of millions of ants, often stinging people when disturbed in trees or vegetation. The ants’ sting has also been known to blind pets.
“Stop the Ant Month” is also intended to help invasive species groups stop any other ant species from becoming entrenched in Hawaii.
Those include the red imported fire ant, which has caused billions of dollars in impacts across the U.S. Texas alone spends $1.1 billion on pesticides annually to control the species.
The state this year allocated about , which is overseen by the Department of Agriculture.
