A hazardous ant species native to West Africa and Asia is on the move in Australia, with a ‘high risk’ of spreading across the country and causing a ‘economic calamity.’
Yellow crazy ants, a significant threat to native wildlife, have been discovered for the first time on the Gold Coast, according to a memo from the city council.
According to the Invasive Species Council, the ants do not bite, instead spraying acid to blind and kill their prey (ISC).
‘Despite their diminutive size, they can swarm in vast numbers, killing larger animals like as lizards, frogs, small mammals, turtle hatchlings, and bird chicks, and changing entire ecosystems,’ according to the ISC.
If not stopped, they ‘could threaten Queensland with economic and ecological disaster, putting the state’s sugar cane and tourism industries at risk,’ the council added.
The ants were discovered on a private property in Yatala, some 30 minutes south of Brisbane’s CBD, and there are serious concerns that they will spread farther before being eradicated.
The Gold Coast City Council cautioned in a memo obtained by News Corp that “this is the only known infestation in the city and the site poses a high danger of (expanding) nationwide.”
The council went on to say, ‘This invasive ant poses a considerable risk to the city.’
The city council is leading a campaign to remove the risk of yellow crazy ants in the neighborhood because it has access to a sort of bait that pest management businesses and landowners don’t have.
The advent of the crazy ants followed a massive infestation of red fire ants, which are already a substantial cost to ratepayers and the environment, according to Hermann Vorster, head of the council’s lifestyle and community committee.
‘It’s a tiny miracle that we’ve only discovered one instance so far and are relatively certain that we can eliminate it, but that doesn’t guarantee we’ll be safe,’ Mr Vorster added.
Red fire ants and yellow crazy ants have both been found in the north of the Gold Coast, just south of Brisbane.
Yellow crazy ants are among the top 100 invasive species in the world.
‘They are an extremely aggressive species that has found its way into Australia via our ports,’ according to the ISC.
They initially appeared on Christmas Island in 1934 and have since been found in Queensland, the Northern Territory, and New South Wales.
The ants pose a threat to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area in Queensland, which is home to the world’s oldest continuously surviving tropical rainforests.
Yellow crazy ants have killed and disfigured significant numbers of chicks in seabird nests all throughout the world, including in the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
If yellow crazy ants are not halted, they could cause economic and ecological devastation in Queensland, jeopardizing the state’s sugar cane and tourism economies.