Ants have pest control beaten

Argentine ants are continuing their march on suburbia and have essentially beaten the exterminators.

They are now reported on nearly 1000 properties in Taranaki. They were not known here 10 years ago.

"They seem to like being where people are, so at least they're not a threat to farm environments," Taranaki Regional Council operations director Rob Phillips said.

The council yesterday asked him to spend more on public education, advice and poison sales. But there's a problem with the poison. The council has been supplying tubes of Xtinguish and Ant Stop granules at cost to users. The council has so far sold 400 tubes and 200 containers of these poisons.

The manufacturer has now advised it will only sell through retail agents, which Mr Phillips says will put the cost of two treatments per year up from $110 to $170. "We are working with two other councils to get supplies of an alternative toxin which we can again supply at a reasonable cost," he said.

The ants are aggressive, they bite, they are highly invasive, small, co-operate with one another and can combine over winter to form super colonies. They quickly become a major household and garden pest.

The ants were first reported in 2006 on 220 properties.

They are now known to be in the following areas: Waitara 200 properties, Bell Block 430, Blagdon 70, Tukapa 50, Fitzroy 60, Belt Rd 25, Oakura 80, Patea 60, Waverley 10.

They are spread by pot plants and transported topsoil, even on beach towels.

"They're now impossible to eradicate," Mr Phillips said. "All we can do is help people to control them with poison and keep our public education programme."

The council runs a summer ant awareness campaign in infested areas.

Mr Phillips said there was no prospect of a biological solution, "other than bringing in a bigger ant to attack them and that would create a bigger problem."

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