Yellow crazy ants are a huge threat to agriculture in Australia’s warmer regions. By farming sugar-secreting scale insects and encouraging sooty moulds they can dramatically reduce the productivity of crops such as fruit trees and sugar cane.
An independent review by Melbourne University found the invasive ants are still eradicable and their preliminary analysis shows that without the program the socio-economic costs alone would exceed $700 million over the next seven years.
They would destroy tourism values in Queensland’s Wet Tropics World Heritage rainforests region, where tourism is worth $2 billion a year.
Project manager with Kenfrost Homes, Adam Gowlett, says the Cairns housing market faces devastating impacts if the yellow crazy ant eradication program is not fully funded.
“If there was no eradication program yellow crazy ants would have a devastating impact on housing development in Cairns,” he says. “People simply wouldn’t want to move their families into an area where there is the risk of yellow crazy ants.”
Sugar cane farmers Dino and Stella Zappala have seen first hand how the eradication program has reduced ant numbers on their farms and allowed the sugar industry to continue to operate with little inconvenience.
“If the ants return to former densities, they will quickly spread and damage sugar cane production and could make the industry unviable.”
Townsville and World Heritage at risk
Since 2018 our Queensland team Yvette, Bev and Janet have been quietly working away with locals in the small town of Nome south of Townsville to eradicate yellow crazy ants.
It’s vital work if we want to secure Queensland from the march of these invasive ants, which form giant super colonies that vacuum up small birds, lizards, frogs and even small mammals.
We were on the cusp of declaring Nome free of yellow crazy ants. Then a new infestation turned up right at the edge of our survey area.
We were all devastated. Our staff and volunteers have put in a huge effort to eradicate yellow crazy ants, an ant so devastating that it is on the IUCN list of 100 of the world’s worst invasive species.
And there are three other areas with yellow crazy ants in Townsville that are not being treated at all.
Our funding for Bev and Janet’s work has run out, but regardless, they are still working on the Townsville Yellow Crazy Ant Community Taskforce as volunteers.
Can you help?
We need to secure enough money to rid the Townsville area of yellow crazy ants and the only way we can do that is with your help.
There are now five populations of yellow crazy ants encircling Townsville – at Nome, Black River, Mount St John and Douglas. The fifth population is the one found recently by Bev and Janet at Alligator Creek.
Eradication of the Nome infestation is on track. The four other infestation sites need urgent treatment and pose serious environment threats if allowed to spread.
- The Black River site is 8km from the southern end of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and just 5km from the only known population of the critically endangered Gulbaru gecko.
- The Mount St John site is close to Townsville Common, important wetlands that are home to 11 frog species and 280 recorded bird species, including magpie geese and brolgas.
- The Douglas site is adjacent to residential areas and the banks of the Ross River, which leads to mangrove areas and enters the coast near Magnetic Island.
- The Alligator River site is less than 5km from the Mt Elliot section of Bowling Green Bay National Park, an area of exceptional species endemism and a climate refuge with many species found only on Mt Elliot, including the Saxicoline sunskink, the Mt Elliot crayfish and the critically endangered Mt Elliot nursery frog.
Yellow crazy ants are a serious threat to native wildlife in tropical and sub-tropical Australia.