911! Little fire ants invading Oahu!

[ericlp]

Well, it's always a lost cause in Puna but somehow on the other island it can be eradicate even if they were there for four years. I dunno tho, multi colony ants are super hard to eradicate. If it were easy I'd never have any in my yard.

[Justin]

Since there aren't any serious checks for planes, boats, etc., going from island to island, but there are checks for things coming from mainland and elsewhere, definitely seems like there is a vested interest in eradicating from EVERY island. Hopefully that is what will come of this.

[Midnight Rambler]

The LFA on Maui have been mostly if not completely eliminated. The thing about Oahu is, the ones in this recent outbreak got there on hapuu logs shipped from Puna and spread around among a bunch of nurseries. But they wouldn't identify the nurseries or stop them from selling plants unless they were specifically identified as infested, so some undoubtedly got around.

They've pretty much been eliminated from the nurseries by now, but while they were checking them, they found that a gulch in Waimanalo behind several nurseries was completely infested with LFA. They don't disperse very quickly, so these must have been there for several years, presumably introduced onto one of the nurseries and then spread back into the gulch instead of on the nursery itself where it would be more noticed. But they have small colonies and aren't always noticed unless they start stinging you, so they may have been spreading from that spot one drip at a time so a while.

[steve1]

How much money is the state spending to prevent the spread of LFA on Maui, Oahu, and Kauai?

How much have they spent in Puna?

I drive a "Puna Cruiser" and was keeping a couple old rags tucked behind the battery to check the oil level on my dipstick. One day last year I pulled out one of the rags and there were thousands of LFA all over it.

[kalakoa]

How much money is the state spending to prevent the spread of LFA

Department of Ag receives 0.4% (yes: four tenths of one percent) of the State budget, and they're expected to mitigate invasives in addition to the produce inspection and everything else they do. Statewide.

When the State says "we have no idea how that (insect, frog, etc) got there", this is why.

[Wao nahele wahine]

Update on our LFA mission while in Waikiki for the day:

From the 20th floor balcony of our hotel room, if I looked down I saw tons of LFA's. But...when we went down to street level to take a closer look, all I could see were tons of tourists, no LFA's to be found.
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Wahine

[Tink]

LOL...just as pesky!

Are you a human being, or a human doing?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

quote:

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Originally posted by kalakoa

When the State says "we have no idea how that (insect, frog, etc) got there", this is why.

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The state (or USDA) doesn't need a large budget to prevent the spread of invasives. They just need to follow up reports by growers:

Coqui - first reported to USDA in Kurtistown in 1994. On the farm of a single tropical flower importer.

LFA - first reported to USDA on a single lot in HPP in the mid 90's. The name of the suspected source of the plants was also provided to the USDA.