Revealed: Fire ants surging further south forcing new plan to combat aggressive pests
Fire ants have surged further south across the Gold Coast, forcing council to consider a new combat plan against the aggressive pests before they spread across the entire city. SEE THE MAP
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FIRE ants have surged further south to reach Nerang, forcing council to consider a new combat plan against the aggressive pests to stop them spreading throughout the entire city.
The Bulletin can reveal city councillors discussed a report behind closed doors which confirmed the Nerang sighting and suggestions by officers that the city create a southern barrier and then work northwards to eradicate the fire ants.
The discovery at Nerang means National Fire Ant Eradication Program will attempt a southern barrier approach, sending treatment kits out to residents there and in nearby suburbs at Arundel, Parkwood and Pacific Pines.
Robina-based councillor Hermann Vorster last year expressed strong concerns about the pests reaching his division and implored more action - following similar pleas by LNP MP Michael Hart.
At the time, the LNP Opposition accused the Palaszczuk government of downplaying the threat, with Mr Hart warning it could “spread beyond repair”.
Back then a council spokesperson siad Biosecurity Queensland was responsible for their eradication and “there are currently no eradication attempts underway on the Gold Coast”.
Biosecurity Queensland was encouraging individuals and organisations to report and self-treat fire ants within the city, the spokesperson said.
New citywide mapping obtained by the Bulletin shows nests were found on 623 sites across 26 suburbs. The biosecurity zone only covered 17 suburbs in 2016.
The report to council said the red imported fire ant was first found in 2006 in Alberton and four years later at Ormeau. By 2016, 17 city suburbs — 24 per cent of the city area — were in the Biosecurity Zone.
“By May 2020, the number of city suburbs in the Biosecurity Zone had increased to 41 — 47 per cent of the city area. This remains unchanged but the number of confirmed RIFA sites continues to rise each year,” the report said.
“On 15 September 2021, three RIFA nests were found on private property at Nerang, close to the southern limit of the Biosecurity Zone. This is the first time RIFA have been found this far south in the city.”
The maps shows how RIFA sightings have doubled since 2019, and that up to 70 sites were being identified in the most southern section which includes suburbs like Parkwood and Pacific Pines.
The council in 2021 began a program treatment for more than 1400 properties in these suburbs along with Maudsland in the hinterland.
The cost of hand treatment by using bait ranges from about $131 to $236 a hectare, with program options costing up to $380,000.
The National Fire Ant Eradication Program has continued self-management treatment pilots in 10 suburbs supplying bait to residents from Molendinar east to Southport and Labrador.
City officers are inspecting and treating high risk sites in a bid to reduce closures to parks and sporting fields.
Labrador and Arundel-based city councillor Ryan Bayldon-Lumsden said the latest aim of the program was to create a boundary which would prevent the further spread of the fire ants going south.
“We want to eliminate everything from here then we can move our way north,” he said.
Cr Bayldon-Lumsden described the pests as “pretty nasty” as well as damaging, causing problems for underground cabling and roads.
Council officers were trying to help businesses impacted by fire ants, provide advice to golf course operators and protect public open spaces, he said.
Many householders during the Christmas-New Year break have been delivered packages which provide treatments. Residents can call Biosecurity Queensland on 132523 to register for free bait.
“We are encouraging everyone to sign up to the program of stopping fire ants heading further south,” Cr Bayldon-Lumsden said.
The South American red fire ant incursion which started around Brisbane was hoped to be wiped out within years by the former Howard Government, which feared the insect could cause billions of dollars of commercial damage and leave Australians dead.
But 20 years on from the Howard cabinet signing off on a $123 million eradication program, with the red fire ant expanding its foothold and reaching the Coast, state and federal governments predict it won’t be eliminated until mid-2027.
Originally published as Revealed: Fire ants surging further south forcing new plan to combat aggressive pests
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