State has little money to stop next threat: fire ants
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer
The red imported fire ant, a venomous creature with a wasp-like sting and a penchant to attack in packs, is the next big threat to Hawai'i, right up there with the brown tree snake, according to researchers concerned about invading alien creatures.
Associated Press
"It's a heartbeat away from here," said Mike Buck, head of the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife. And some scientists say the effort to keep out the fire ant — and combat other dangerous alien species in the Islands — isn't getting nearly enough money to do the job. Buck called the fight against alien species "the most important environmental issue facing the state right now."
In Hana, Russell Suzuki pulls down miconia seedlings, one of thousands of alien species in Hawai'i.
The South American ant moved into the Southern region of the United States early in the last century, and its virulence has frightened people wherever it's gone. Its toxic stings send more than 20,000 people to U.S. hospitals each year.
Within the past five years, the red imported fire ant has gained a foothold in Southern California, where state officials have promised $40 million over five years to control it. "That's where we get most of our cargo from, and all it takes is one of them coming in a shipping container. We call it a supertramp species," said Christy Martin of the multi-agency Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species.
• How to help: To report plants and animals that don't belong, call the state Department of Agriculture's pest hot line at 586-7378. • For more information: See the Hawai'i Ecosystems at Risk project Web site at www.hear.org; and California's Web site on red fire ants at pi.cdfa.ca.gov/rifa/.
The ants almost made their way to Hawai'i in 1991, when agricultural inspectors in Honolulu intercepted an infested mail parcel from Florida.
Alien species fight
As the fight against the ants suggests, keeping up the effort to prevent alien species from entering the Islands requires lots of vigilance, organization — and money.
On Maui, a consortium of private, nonprofit and government groups working together as the Maui Invasive Species Committee is fighting the fast-spreading miconia plant; the coqui, a noisy species of tree frog; and towering stands of pampas grass. Other agencies are left to battle a proliferation of axis deer, which are invading native forest areas and pasture lands. Argentine ants are killing off natural pollinators of native plants on Haleakala. The list of invasive alien species is nearly endless.
"We need $9 million to $10 million per island per year and here we're not even getting a million a year," said Randy Bartlett, head of the Maui Invasive Species Committee. Even with its limited money, the program has killed 250,000 miconia plants in the past three years.
Statewide, Buck said, the invasive species effort probably needs $50 million annually. He estimates that the dozens of agencies involved in the effort may budget half of that.
"There are just so many agencies involved that it's hard to get a handle on it. We need leadership, coordination and funding, with leadership and coordination at the highest level," he said.
Sanford D. Potter • USDA Advertiser library photo Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
While it's easier to raise money to mount an effort to control a pest that's already here, Buck said most of the money ought to go toward prevention activities, such as public education, strict quarantines, and thorough inspection of baggage and cargo arriving by sea or air.
A red imported fire ant stings and bites a victim.
Veiled chameleons recently established a colony on Maui.
Coqui tree frogs found a home in Hawai'i.
"I would spend 70 cents of every new dollar on prevention," he said. "If you're in a control mode, you've lost already."
Bartlett agreed: "With miconia, the jury's still out on whether it's eradicable or whether we're going to have to keep working on it indefinitely." One problem: Each flowering miconia tree produces thousands of seeds that are viable for up to eight years.
With alarms sounded at the discovery of each new alien species — one of the latest being a colony of veiled chameleons in Upcountry Maui — some may wonder whether the invaders post a genuine threat or whether they're part of an inevitable process that began when the first humans landed in the Islands, bringing a host of introduced species that are now considered commonplace.
After all, how much trouble can a noisy frog or an exotic lizard cause to the Hawaiian environment and economy?
Because of its loud nighttime chirping, the coqui tree frog, now established on the Big Island, Maui and O'ahu, is one of the most obvious alien species problems, but it could be a minor factor for the environment.
"It's filling a niche in the environment that wasn't occupied at all before. It could outcompete native forest birds for insects. There are indications that they can achieve higher densities in Hawai'i than in their own range," said Martin of the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, whose membership includes the Hawai'i departments of Agriculture, Health, Transportation, and Land and Natural Resources as well as the the Hawai'i Farm Bureau Federation, the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau, and the National Park Service.
The coqui is the subject of eradication experiments on the Big Island. However, those efforts have drawn protests from some people who don't find the frogs' night calls objectionable.
Some established invaders are not as high up the scale of public consciousness, even though they cause substantial financial losses or have a potentially devastating impact on use of Hawai'i's natural resources.
The Formosan ground termite, for example, aggressively attacks wooden structures and is estimated to cost $150 million a year in repair and treatment costs. And, fruit flies are responsible for $300 million a year in lost agricultural sales.
Associated Press
In 1992, Honolulu quarantine officers confiscated 39 piranhas from aquarium enthusiasts who purchased them from a Mainland mail-order house. Two of the flesh-eating fish were found in O'ahu's Lake Wilson around the same time. If the species were to become established here, Hawai'i's freshwater ponds and streams could be rendered unsafe for swimming.
State officials have fought hard to keep the brown tree snake from establishing itself in Hawai'i. The fight has been successful — so far.
Offshore threats to Hawai'i include mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria. The mosquito species that carries this disease is not among the mosquitos now found in the Islands. But the one that carries dengue fever is here, and about 16 months ago it touched off an outbreak of approximately 120 cases that chilled the Hawaiian visitor industry.
Insects, birds, plants and other species have been arriving in Hawai'i since the Islands were formed. But before planes and ships, they arrived infrequently.
Before the arrival of humans, the rate of new species establishment in the Hawaiian Islands was approximately one new species every 35,000 years. It is now on the order of 20 to 30 species a year, according to the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
Bartlett said invasive species have the capability to completely transform Hawai'i. Imagine wetlands choked by miconia and drylands overrun by fountaingrass. Imagine native birds supplanted by singing frogs and the ground crawling with toxic creatures such the red imported fire ant.
The fire ants live in underground colonies. If disturbed, they swarm out and grab hold of the intruder with their pincers while injecting venom from a rear stinger. They can sting repeatedly, with the results occasionally fatal to humans. The ants can blind and even kill livestock and wildlife.
Nationally, fire ants cause billions of dollars in damage every year to air conditioners, electrical equipment and farms. One of the major costs is to utilities, because the ants seem to readily establish nests around power poles and stations. Hawaiian Electric Co. has been recruited to try to identify early infestations, because its workers may be among the first to feel the sting.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
