Scientists appear to be winning a battle against little fire ants in East Maui

[terracore]

As I recall the Malathion spraying didn't even work as intended and the flies were controlled by releasing tens of millions of radiation-sterilized flies. Nowadays those would be branded as "GMO flies" or "radioactive super flies" and people would protest them regardless.

[HiloJulie]

I’m sure some other country or US Territory will come forward claiming that the fire ant is a sacred animal and must not be eradicated in any way. 

Or just cue in Sydney Ross Singer.

[Punatang]

Grits kill fire ants.  Just use organic grits and no one will have anything to grumble about.  You could drop organic grits from drones or hellocopters and I doubt even The Natch crowd would complain.

[kalianna]

"Research plots have demonstrated that using grits does not control fire ants. The theory behind the use of grits as a fire ant control is that the ants will eat the grits, which swell in their stomachs causing them to explode. However, this theory is incorrect because fire ant workers cannot eat solid food." https://ant-pests.extension.org/do-grits...lid%20food.

Or just Google "Do grits kill little fire ants" for other references. Grits are often used as a base for poisons but itʻs the poison that kills the ant, not the grits.

[Midnight Rambler]

The corn grits for ant bait are soaked in oil that's mixed with a poison, it's the oil that they're attracted to.

The infestation on Maui wasn't "one property" as such but the thing that made it possible to do this kind of control was that there are no houses here. There is one in the upper part of the area (where they were first introduced at), which they had to avoid with the helicopter and treat from the ground.

It couldn't really be done over the whole Big Island, but possibly if it had been taken this seriously 25 years ago then we wouldn't be in the situation we are today. Still, the Nahiku site is something like 250 acres of almost impenetrable jungle, so a pretty incredible accomplishment to get rid of them from there!

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

if it had been taken this seriously 25 years ago

Fire ants were brought in by a single nursery grower.  He sold infected stock to a known number of customers, that could have been traced.  USDA was called early on by one of those customers.  USDA responded exactly as they did to initial reports of coqui.  

A site inspection and no follow up.
And here we are.

But they will take your apple or banana if you try to fly to the mainland with one.

[microage97]

Idk, I see a lot more of them down underground than above...

[Punatang]

Sorry, I thought it went without saying. Even ants know better than to eat just plain grits. So we have pancake batter and grits. What's next?

[TomK]

Question for the OP. Why is it you happily accept scientists' opinions when you think they support your arguments, but when they don't, they are no longer scientists?

[MyManao]

Question for the OP...

I’m good with all scientists Tom, it’s just the egotistical maniacs that claim to be one on social media that I find a bit hard to swallow.