Dreaded fire ant not here, expert says

By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer

Concerned O'ahu residents have reported recent sightings of a destructive species of fire ant, but the state Department of Agriculture said the pest has not migrated here from the Mainland.

"People are reading about fire ants (in the newspapers), but the ones in California haven't come here," said Bernarr Kumashiro, department taxonomist. "There are people who have lived here for 30 years, and this is the first time they've noticed the ants on the ground. They fit the description of what they're reading, and they're getting all excited."

Kumashiro said people may be confusing the tropical fire ant, which is common to the state, with the red imported fire ant, or Solenopsis invicta, which has devastated crops in California and Nevada since last year and cost those states millions of dollars.

Differences in appearance between tropical fire ants and red imported fire ants are very subtle, Kumashiro said. "You wouldn't know the difference," he said.

Tropical fire ants have two "teeth," or spines, on a flap just above their mouths; the red imported fire ants have three. Tropical fire ant soldiers have slightly larger heads, and they have a flange on their middle thorax.

Last year red imported fire ants invaded California, joining 11 Southeastern states that are infested, causing billions of dollars in damage to agriculture.

Red imported fire ants build giant mounds that can hold up to 200,000 ants. When the insects feel threatened, they swarm. Stings burn and results in blisters. According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, about 50 to 60 people have died from the fire ant sting. Its toxic stings send more than 20,000 people to U.S. hospitals each year.

Kumashiro said he has gotten calls from Hale'iwa, Mililani, Kaimuki and Kane'ohe, reporting sightings of what people believe are the red imported fire ants.

The likelihood of red imported fire ants gaining a foothold here depends on Hawai'i's importation protocols, said Karen Jetter, agricultural economist at the Agricultural Issues Center, University of California.

In 1991, agricultural inspectors in Honolulu intercepted a mail parcel from Florida that was infested with red imported fire ants.