Fire ants Qld: Logan property heavily infested by pests
A Logan family is stuck living with one of the heaviest infestations of fire ants an expert in the field has seen.
Pets and Wildlife
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Ebony Britton is the pained face of South East Queensland’s fire ant crisis.
When the mother of two secured a cheap rental at Greenbank in Logan about two years ago, little did she know the acreage property was infested with thousands of the potentially deadly pests.
Ms Britton, 39, and her sons Kaleb, 20, and Levii, 16, have been bitten by fire ants multiple times, with Kaleb developing an “extremely severe” allergic reaction to the painful bites.
Their havanese dog, Leopold, died soon after they moved into their property after being attacked by the rampant pests.
Ms Britton said she had to call an ambulance after Kaleb was bitten a second time, and keeps an epi-pen on hand at all times.
“It’s pretty scary,” she said.
“Kaleb says the pain is excruciating and he’s now allergic to all ant bites, even just normal green ants and bull ants.
“We had no idea about the fire ants when we first moved in – we saw ant nests but just thought they were normal ants.”
Ms Britton, who is suffering from breast cancer, said she was bitten “every other day” by the ants.
“Even when you’re on the ride-on mower, they crawl up the wheels and on to the cutting deck,” she said.
Ms Britton said after months of delays, and her spending $500 to get the block slashed, fire ant eradication officers arrived last week to treat the property.
She said she had no choice but to put up with the ants due to the difficulties of finding an affordable rental.
Invasive Species Council advocacy manager Reece Pianta said it was one of the heaviest infestations of fire ants he’d seen.
“The concentration and the level (of fire ants) was pretty alarming,” he said.
“We easily flagged over 30 nests on the property in 10 or 15 minutes – we’re talking about tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of fire ants across hundreds of nests, most likely.
“This is something we’ve been warning about for a long time, but now we’re getting fire ant densities where we’re seeing the impacts in real time on humans and animals.”
Mr Pianta said the fire ant infestation was a real problem for Ms Britton and her family, but the big danger was the fire ants spreading.
“If they get into a carrier material like hay or mulch, or a turf farm, it’s a problem for the whole country,” he said.
“They can easily spread hundreds of kilometres from there.”
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