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Community urged to join fight against yellow crazy ants in Nome

Keeping a lid on the spread of yellow crazy ants in Nome near Townsville is vital work that needs the help of the local community.
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A volunteer student from James Cook University helps monitor for signs of yellow crazy ants. Photo: Janet Cross
A volunteer student from James Cook University helps monitor for signs
of yellow crazy ants. Photo: Janet Cross

Our Townsville Yellow Crazy Ant Taskforce team has been busy keeping a lid on the spread of this highly invasive creature at Nome, just south of Townsville.

They’ve just recently put out large signs throughout the suburb warning locals to remain alert and report any sightings of yellow crazy ants, which are a threat not just to the local environment but people, pets, and even electrical infrastructure.

They’ve also distributed a kit of yellow crazy ant stickers and magnets to help locals identify these ants if found in homes or gardens.

Yellow crazy ants have been present in and around Nome since 2008, but our taskforce team is working closely with the City of Townsville and getting on top of the situation.

Yellow crazy ants are not native to Australia, but have been found in Queensland and are the focus of several eradication programs. Yellow crazy ants - budak Flickr - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Yellow crazy ants are not native to Australia, but have been found in Queensland and are the focus of several eradication programs. Photo: budak Flickr – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Stay alert and report suspected ants!

Although there have been very few signs of yellow crazy ant activity in the area recently locals are being reminded to remain vigilante.

And while our intensive monitoring efforts are paying off, a number of nests were found recently just outside of the Nome residential area, which will be spot treated.

If you live in Nome or anywhere in the Townsville region you can help eradicate yellow crazy ants by ensuring there are no nests hidden in your backyard:

  • When disposing of green waste make sure you mulch on site, compost or burn it.
  • Check pot plants before moving house or giving pot plants away.
  • Check all rubbish before you dispose of it.
  • Check and clean cars, boats, trailers and caravans before travelling if they have been sitting idle for longer than 24 hours.

Spotted an ant? Snap Send Solve

LLocals are also being urged to report any possible yellow crazy ant sightings using the Snap Send Solve app.

It’s a quick and easy way of reporting yellow crazy ants in three simple It’s a quick and easy way of reporting yellow crazy ants in just three simple steps:

  1. Snap: Take a photo of the suspected ants and add a short note. For example “Found in my front yard – are these yellow crazy ants?”
  2. Send: Use the Snap Send Solve app to send your photo to the council.
  3. Solve: Council will analyse your photo and contact you on the outcome of their investigation.
This quick identikit will help you identify invasive yellow crazy ants. These ants are tiny but have a huge impact on our native wildlife, killing and consuming most other ants, insects, lizards, birds and small mammals. They thrive in Queensland’s warm, humid tropics but are not native to Australia.
This quick identikit will help you identify invasive yellow crazy ants. These ants are tiny but have a huge impact on our native wildlife, killing and consuming most other ants, insects, lizards, birds and small mammals. They thrive in Queensland’s warm, humid tropics but are not native to Australia.

Getting the kids on board

Year 3 kids from Townsville Grammar School’s Annandale campus were introduced to the world of invasive ants in Australia when our taskforce coordinator Bev Job paid them a visit earlier in the year.

They learned about the threats yellow crazy ants pose to the region’s natural areas and wildlife, including Queensland’s Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, and they were shown how to use ‘lure cards’ in the school grounds to find out what sort of ant species live nearby.

The lures draw ants to the cards, and once the students had collected their lure cards, photographed and analysed them, they were shocked at just how many ant species were making a home of the school grounds.

Thankfully, no yellow crazy ants were found!

Can you help turbo charge our team

Our yellow crazy ant taskforce team is now in the running for an Australian Ethical Community Grant.

The grant would turbo charge our fight to eradicate yellow crazy ants from northern Queensland.

The more votes we get, the more chance we will get the grant. Can you help by voting for us at: bit.ly/Ethical-grants-2020

We’re listed under Animals, Invasive Species Council. Look for the photo of one of our ace yellow crazy ant volunteers in monitoring stance!

More info

Related Content

Yellow crazy ants are not native to Australia, but have been found in Queensland and are the focus of several eradication programs. Yellow crazy ants - budak Flickr - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Too much to lose – yellow crazy ants in the wet tropics
Townsville Yellow Crazy Ant Community Taskforce
Fire ants. Photo: Mikhail Vasilyev | Unsplash
Invasive ants

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    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

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    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
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    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]