Local News - May 2002

Lincoln braces for Fire Ant infestation

By COURTNEY MARTIN, LTN Staff Writer

May 24, 2002 - Red Imported Fire Ants: the bane of those who enjoy the summer outdoors.

Though Lincoln county is not under quarantine like 49 of North Carolina’s 100 counties, those pesky fire ants are still a problem.

“They are here and we encourage people to be vigilant,” said Kevin Starr director of the Lincoln office of the Cooperative Extension Service.

The red imported fire ant (RIFA) is a nuisance and health concern to humans, livestock, and wildlife due to its painful sting.

Lincoln County will most likely be in quarantined fairly soon, said Starr.

“I don’t know of anything to stop them,” Starr said. But “they don’t seem to be spreading too quickly.”

But there is hope.

The National and N.C. Departments of Agriculture and Consumer Services are trying to devise ways of containing the ants.

One method being used are parasitic flies that only attack the fire ant. They do not completely wipe out the ants, but do allow native species a chance to thrive.

There are also pesticides and baits that can be affective as well.

The worst spot in Lincoln County was found a couple years ago, said Starr.

It was in Iron Station and was the closest Starr had seen in Lincoln County to resembling the infestation in eastern North Carolina.

The Brazilian red imported fire ant was first detected in the United States in Alabama in 1918. It was first identified in the southeastern part of North Carolina in Brunswick County in 1957.

Now all of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are infested as well as most of eastern Texas and southern Arkansas. Small portions of Oklahoma, Tennessee, New Mexico and California are also infected.

The ants attack en masse and can cause fatal allergic reactions, according to the N.C. Department of Agriculture.

Fire ants can’t overwhelm a healthy, mobile person and even hundreds of stings are rarely fatal. The chance of being killed by fire ants is higher only if you are highly allergic or cannot quickly get away from them. The chances of either are very small.

Here are a few things to look out for that may indicate the presence of red ants:

· Mounds of loose soil, re-sembling gopher diggings, are found above ground.

· Mounds are generally numerous and conspicuous.

· Worker ants are dark or-ange/brown, small, highly vari-able in size, aggressive, and sting relentlessly.

· Workers have the same body proportions from the tini-est to the largest. Head width never exceeds the abdomen width, even in the largest work-ers.

· A sting usually leaves a white pustule the next day.
 

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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