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Fire ants in Australia, we ain't seen nothing yet

For 15 years we’ve been battling fire ant infestations in Queensland and we’re losing the fight. Unless federal, state and territory governments back eradication to the hilt all our efforts will have been wasted.
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Seeing a real fire ant nest for the first time in Australia is a chilling reminder that these frightening ants could cover almost the entire continent of Australia if not eradicated.Seeing a real fire ant nest for the first time in Australia is a chilling reminder that these frightening ants could cover almost the entire continent of Australia if not eradicated.
Seeing a real fire ant nest for the first time in Australia is a chilling reminder that these frightening ants could cover almost the entire continent of Australia if not eradicated.

When I first laid eyes on a red fire ant mound in Brisbane’s outer suburb of Ipswich late last year my heart sank. They were a familiar sight during my week-long visit to the United States just six months ago, and I had come to despise them.
Seeing first-hand Australia’s very own fire ant nests – alive with the same aggressive, frightening, swarming fire ants – underscored the gravity of Australia’s multi-million-dollar fight to rid itself of these ants.
Fire ants are winning the fight. Despite 15 years of effort, they are spreading and defying more than 100 eradication team members whose mission every day is to search and destroy fire ants.
In the brand-new housing estate at Ipswich, we found fire ant nests in newly laid turf, inside an NBN service box and hidden among the bark chips of a newly-planted tree. Tradesmen were putting the finishing touches to home interiors while fire ants were colonising the yards.
 

Fire Ants Down Under – a national emergency tour

In March we are visiting five capital cities across Australia with Texas fire ant expert Dr Robert Puckett.
The key task of our whirlwind tour is to warn as many Australians as possible of the dangers to our nation if we fail to eradicate Queensland’s current fire ant infestations – they need to know we can’t afford to let this genie out of the bottle.
Book your spot at one of our national fire ant forums in March. We have a serious message to deliver to Australia.

A painful legacy

The presence of fire ants in this new housing estate appears to be the legacy of a half-funded eradication program. Limited funds force difficult choices.
Sensibly, the focus over recent years has been on surveillance – confirming the greatest extent of fire ants. This came at the cost of less frequent baiting in known fire-ant infested areas. The recommended treatment is six bait applications over two years but because of tough funding choices many areas did not receive enough treatments.
Our tour of the southeast Queensland fire ant infestation zone was led by Biosecurity Queensland. First thing in the morning myself and our outreach officer, Reece Pianta, witnessed an army of field officers heading into treatment areas before the day became too hot. This level of effort is not cheap, and when you add the cost of aerial baiting and the extensive planning needed for this work you can quickly see how the yearly tally can reach $18 million.
We were taken to one of the research plots about half an hour’s drive away. Among the grassy tussocks were scores of coloured markers signifying fire ant nests. Markers were visible everywhere we looked. This is one of the few places where fire ants weren’t immediately treated and where nest densities approach those found in the southern United States – hundreds of nests to the hectare.
Few Queenslanders have experienced fire ants running rampant. To me this underscored the importance of warnings I heard from the people I met in Texas, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. Living with fire ants is hell and we should do everything humanely possible to get rid of them!

Fire ant action

We are leading the campaign to rid Australia of fire ants. To do that we need to ensure that in May, when Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce meets with state and territory agriculture ministers, the fire ant threat is taken seriously.
Now that an independent review of the fire ant eradication program has confirmed nothing short of a ten-year funding commitment of $38 million a year is needed to rid Australia of fire ants we must ensure agricultural ministers from every state and territory back it to the hilt.
We also need to build public awareness of this huge threat and plan to bring out a fire ant expert from the US in March 2017 to warn Australians of the nightmare that would take over our country if fire ants are not eradicated.
There are three things you can do to make this a reality:
1. Donate and support the fire ant tour >>
2. Sign the fire ant eradication petition >>
3. Sign-up for a fire ant event in your state >>

More info

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    [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,
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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]