19 April 2024
- Fire ant nests being treated in Oakey, Toowoomba.
- Experts from the National Fire Ant Eradication Program are responding.
- Oakey residents and businesses urged to look for and report suspect nests online at fireants.org.au or by calling 13 25 23.
The National Fire Ant Eradication Program is assessing and treating a new detection in Oakey, Toowoomba.
A member of the public reported the nests on Tuesday 16 April, with initial surveillance and treatment conducted by the program yesterday.
Teams from the national program are on site again today to determine the extent of the infestation and treat all nests.
Eradication activities, including intensive treatment and surveillance will occur up to 5 kilometres out from the detection site to protect the area and ensure no undetected fire ants remain.
Fire ant treatment is safe for people, animals, and the environment – and is approved by the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority. The treatment contains the same active ingredients commonly found in household and agricultural pest control products, but at a much lower concentration.
Compliance and tracing investigations are also underway to help determine how the ants arrived in the area.
Residents and businesses in Oakey are encouraged to join the fight by looking for and reporting any suspect nests or ants.
Fire ants are copper brown in colour and have a darker abdomen. They measure 2–6 millimetres in length with a variety of sizes found in each nest. Fire ant nests appear as mounds or patches of loose soil and have no obvious entry or exit holes.
Fire ants are attracted to disturbed soil and can be transported through human-assisted movement of organic materials.
This is the greatest risk to their spread and can have devasting impacts on our environment, economy, human and animal health, and our outdoor way of life.
Visit fireants.org.au for more information.
Quotes attributable to Ashley Bacon, Executive Program Director, National Fire Ant Eradication Program:
“This detection is concerning, but we do have procedures in place deal with it,” Ashley said.
“We have managed outlier detections before, and we will do it again.
“Eradicating fire ants is not easy – it will take a whole-of-community approach.
“We need everyone to look for and report fire ants to us online at fireants.org.au or by calling 13 25 23.
“We also need people to let our teams in if we need to conduct eradication activities on their properties and take steps not to spread the invasive pest.”