This is a concept website · Enquire about this domain

pestcontrolnoosa.com.au
Guide 1 of 5

Fire ants, and what to look for in a yard

Noosa Council says it does not want fire ants in the shire at all, and its own page on them says why: the ants are a serious threat to lifestyle, public safety, the environment and the economy. In Queensland they are a category 1 restricted pest, and this guide is about what a person actually has in front of them: the ant, the nest, the sting, and the first day after a sighting.

Noosa Shire's four answers to pests, drawn as four nested rings on paper. Outermost, KEEP OUT, holding fire ants. Next, REMOVE, the plants the plan could clear from the shire, and then CONTAIN, the plants a landowner must hold on their land. Innermost, LIVE WITH, holding the saltmarsh mosquito and the biting midge. At the centre, a brown square, THE HOUSE. It is a diagram, not a map, and it is drawn in order rather than to scale. Each ring's label opens a guide. KEEP OUT a sighting goes to the national program Fire ants. Noosa Council: “We don’t want them in Noosa Shire.” five invasive plant species already brought under control REMOVE cleared only with residents and landowners 10 priority invasive plants that could potentially be eradicated CONTAIN the landowner keeps it on their property landowners must control invasive species on their land LIVE WITH the marsh is treated the yard is yours saltmarsh mosquito biting midge THE HOUSE and the one protected animal a licensed technician Four answers, drawn in order. A diagram, not a map.
Noosa Shire's four answers to pests, as four bands indented one inside the next, from KEEP OUT at the top through REMOVE and CONTAIN to LIVE WITH, with THE HOUSE last. It is a diagram, not a map. Each band opens its guide. KEEP OUT a sighting goes to the national program Fire ants. Noosa Council: “We don’t want them in Noosa Shire.” five invasive plant species already brought under control REMOVE cleared only with residents and landowners 10 priority invasive plants that could potentially be eradicated CONTAIN the landowner keeps it on their property landowners must control invasive species on their land LIVE WITH the marsh is treated; the yard is yours the saltmarsh mosquito the biting midge THE HOUSE a licensed technician and the one protected animal
Four answers, drawn in order. A diagram, not a map.

The ant itself

Fire ants are not native to Australia. Business Queensland records that they came from South America and that they are small, coppery brown insects able to inflict painful stings on people and animals, with effects that reach well past the sting itself. Two official pages describe the same insect in almost the same words: the state's pest page gives an ant between 2 and 6 millimetres long, with a coppery brown head and body and a darker abdomen, and each nest holding ants of various sizes. The national program's page adds the detail that matters most to someone standing over one, which is that the ants are highly aggressive when disturbed.

A nest is not a landmark. Noosa Council's own fire ant page describes two shapes: a dome-shaped mound, or a flat patch that could be mistaken for a small area of disturbed soil. Business Queensland adds the detail that makes both shapes easy to walk past, which is that neither one has an obvious entry or exit hole.

Two official descriptions, side by side

Two Queensland sources describe the same animal, and reading them together is the quickest way to know what to look for.

The state pest pageThe shire's own page
An ant 2 to 6 millimetres long, coppery brown with a darker abdomen, in a nest holding ants of several sizes. The mound can stand up to 40 centimetres high, or lie flat and look like a patch of disturbed soil, and it has no obvious entry or exit holes.A nest that is either a dome-shaped mound or flat, and that can look like a small patch of disturbed soil.
Usually in open ground: lawns, pasture, roadsides, unused cropland, and beside or under timber, logs, rocks, pavers or bricks.The ants themselves, as the shire describes the risk: painful stings, and the potential to get in the way of everyday things such as a barbecue, a picnic or a sporting event.

The two pages are read together because the ant moves. The national program's page records that fire ants can fly up to 5 kilometres, travel over and under the ground, raft on waterways after rain or flooding, and travel as stowaways on goods, vehicles and shipping containers.

What a sting does

Business Queensland records that the ants usually move quickly, so a large number can reach a person before they are noticed, and that a sting brings a painful, burning, itching feeling that can last up to an hour. Small pustules can appear at the sting sites some hours later and become itchy, and a broken pustule can become infected.

The same page records the rare case: the sting can, in unusual cases, set off a severe acute allergic reaction. For anyone who may be having anaphylaxis, healthdirect’s advice is to use an adrenaline autoinjector (if one is to hand) and ring triple zero (000) for an ambulance.

What Queensland law requires

Fire ants are a category 1 restricted pest under the Biosecurity Act 2014. Biosecurity zones are in place in parts of Queensland to restrict the movement of material that could carry the ants from one place to another. Inside those zones the rule is written plainly: a person must not move a live fire ant from a place in a fire ant biosecurity zone to another place, within or outside the zone, unless it is moved under a biosecurity authorisation. The same regulation says a live fire ant must not be kept outside the zones without an authorisation either.

For anyone whose work involves moving or storing material that can carry fire ants, the state also sets a general biosecurity obligation: under the Act, individuals and organisations must take all reasonable steps to make sure they do not spread the ants. Among the steps the national program's page lists is to clean equipment and machinery properly, slashers, excavators and wheelbarrows among them, so that it carries no soil and no other material the ants like to nest in.

The 24 hours after a sighting

Business Queensland is direct about why reporting matters: early detection and reporting are the key elements in eradicating fire ants. Reporting is a duty: anyone who lives or works around the affected areas of Queensland or New South Wales must report any suspected sighting, the national program’s page says. In Queensland the call is to 132 ANT, which is 13 22 68, within 24 hours of the sighting, or the report can be made online at fireants.org.au. The state's own fire ant page repeats the number and the point: it is essential that people stay alert and report suspected sightings to the National Fire Ant Eradication Program on 13 22 68.

The program's page also allows for the common case, which is not being sure. Its own instruction is to report any unusual ants, even without identifying them.

The record so far, dated

The national program and the state keep the dates between them, and three of them are worth holding on to.

  1. February 2001Fire ants are detected in Australia for the first time, in Queensland, the national program records.
  2. Since thenThey spread across South East Queensland. Nests have been found across an area estimated at 600,000 hectares, Business Queensland records.
  3. In allFire ants have been eradicated from Australia on eight separate occasions: six in Queensland, and one each in New South Wales and Western Australia, the national program records.