Search
Close this search box.
Search
Close this search box.

Help stop fire ants in their tracks

Our Work  |  Invasive Insects  |  Photo: www.antweb.org – CC BY-SA 3.0

Red Fire Ants are a serious problem for everybody in Australia. These highly invasive ants first turned up in Australia in 2001 at the northern port of Brisbane. We know of four other outbreaks. One large outbreak in southeast Queensland remains active, but contained.

Their stings can kill people and livestock. They can also wipe out entire native ecosystems, turning bustling bushland silent.

We have one shot at stopping red fire ants from taking over the country and the time for governments to urgently eradicate fire ant outbreaks is now.

What’s the risk

If we fail to get on top of the current outbreak in Queensland, modelling shows fire ants will spread to every corner of Australia. Our way of life will be changed forever.

Fire ants spread quickly on their own, however their spread is often accelerated by human assistance. They can reach new areas unexpectedly by stowing away in cargo containers or shipments of potted plants, soil or mulch. Once they reach a new area, they can be quite resilient and may take a long time to detect.

We just have to look at the US to see what would happen to Australia if we fail to eradicate fire ants.

Fire ants were accidentally introduced into Alabama in the 1930s. It was not until 1957 that eradication was attempted but it was too late. They have now spread to Texas, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

  • They cost US industry and agriculture $7 billion a year.
  • They have caused the death of 85 people, all dying from anaphylactic shock.
  • Elderly people in US nursing homes have died after mass stings.
Left, secondary infection following red fire ant stings, photo: Texas Department of Agriculture. Right, pustules resulting from fire ant stings. Photo: Murray S. Blum, The University of Georgia, www.forestryimages.org

Left, secondary infection following red fire ant stings, photo: Texas Department of Agriculture. Right, pustules resulting from fire ant stings. Photo: Murray S. Blum, The University of Georgia, www.forestryimages.org

Could this happen in Australia?

Yes. Nearly all of Australia is vulnerable to fire ant invasion, including all major cities and towns. More than 99% of the mainland and 80% of Tasmania are suitable to these deadly intruders.

Fire ants might be small, but when their nests are disturbed they rise up in their thousands to swarm and sting their intruder en masse.

Without the regular use of chemical baits, infested parks, gardens and homes become uninhabitable. In the US, 30% to 60% of people in infested areas are stung each year. The stings are painful, hence their name ‘fire’ ants. The alkaloid venom causes pustules and, in some people, allergic reactions.

Fire ants have greater ecological impacts than most ants because they reach extremely high densities. An assessment of their likely impact on 123 animals in southeast Queensland predicted population declines in about 45% of birds, 38% of mammals, 69% of reptiles and 95% of frogs.

These ants damage crops, rob beehives and kill newborn livestock. During dry times they dominate the margins of dams and livestock cannot reach water without being seriously stung.

Australia has too much to lose if we don’t eradicate red fire ants.

Why we need to take action

Fire ants are one of the world’s worst invasive species. They are an economic and environmental pest, responsible for killing people in the southern half of the United States where they are a prolific invasive species. They severely impact natural habitats, parks and sporting fields, farms, and livestock. 

As well as being an environmental and health hazard, they cost US industry and agriculture a shocking $7 billion a year and if left unchecked, fire ants would have similar impacts in Australia.

A recent independent review found that a major boost of funding is needed over the next decade to successfully eradicate fire ants from South East Queensland. The alternative is unthinkable. If fire ants get out of control Queensland alone faces a 30-year damage bill of $45 billion, dwarfing the cost of eradication.

In 2017, we advocated for funding of $411 million for South East Queensland’s eradication program, and won. But we recently discovered that the program funding in Queensland has been recklessly cut by almost half. Yet we’re hurtling toward a point where we can’t stop a continent-wide spread.

We’re the only national environmental advocacy organisation working to stop this national disaster.

With community support we can hold government’s to account and push for immediate action. 

Please donate today to support urgent action.

More info

Dear Project Team,

[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]


Dear Project Team,

[YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

Kind regards,
[Your name]
[Your email address]
[Your postcode]