Success in War With Fire Ants Means Taking Fight to Queen

Three months after being bombarded with poison, fire ants have returned to O’Neill Regional Park in Orange County’s Trabuco Canyon, showing how difficult it is to wipe out these intrepid invaders.

“We knocked them down real well, and then all of a sudden in the last week or two they picked up again,” said Tim Miller, manager of Orange County’s Harbors, Beaches and Parks Division.

While county officials have employed a wipe-’em-out-quick strategy, state agriculture workers have opted for a birth control approach, which takes as long as six weeks to destroy a colony. State officials say this strategy is more effective because there is a greater chance that the poison will be carried to the queen.

“The main thing you need to do is get the queen,” said Joan Scheiman, manager of the state’s fire ant eradication project in Orange County.

The birth control measure works like this: Ground corn cobs soaked in soy oil and laced with an insect growth inhibitor are spread around mounds where the ants live. Worker ants are attracted to the soy oil and carry the corn down to the colony. There the workers feast on the corn mixture before passing it on to the queen.

Eventually the corn is served to the queen. It doesn’t kill her, but it sterilizes her eggs, putting an end to the colony.

Today, state crews will sprinkle the corn around fire ant mounds at shopping centers in Rancho Santa Margarita. Next week, they’ll take the corn to parks and shopping centers in Coto de Caza.

State officials started their anti-ant efforts in Orange County in May. They have not been looking for the ants in residential areas, and they want residents to call (800) 491-1899 to report suspicious mounds. State or local officials will then trap ants and test them in a laboratory to make sure they are the imported variety, not the native variety.

County officials have spent about $100,000 since February to survey and poison the ants.

In addition, the state is spending $8.7 million this year to oversee fire ant eradication efforts.

Assemblyman Bill Campbell (R-Villa Park), whose district includes the infested Trabuco Canyon, is co-sponsor of legislation to provide an additional $9.5 million to local communities to eradicate the fire ant. The Assembly Appropriations Committee will debate the measure next week.

“This first year is very critical, but don’t expect anything to happen overnight,” Campbell said. “It’s going to take five years to get this under control. And I want to get rid of them, not just get them under control.”

The South American fire ant first appeared in Alabama in the 1930s. The aggressive insect spread throughout the Southeast and Texas, traveling to California in the last five years. Besides Orange County, the fire ant has infested parts of Los Angeles and Riverside counties.

“These things will pop up wherever there is landscaping and water,” said Larry Cooper, spokesman for the state agriculture department, who is helping coordinate the state’s $800,000 public outreach effort. As part of the program, elementary school students in the fall will learn the dangers of fire ants.

“We don’t want to scare kids to death, but we want them to be aware that these things can sting,” Cooper said.

In Texas, Florida and other southeastern states, more than 30 people have died after being bitten or stung by fire ants. People who are allergic to bee stings are more likely to suffer problems from a fire ant bite.

“These things can really be nasty little critters,” Cooper said.

County parks with the greatest infestations have been O’Neill Regional Park, Laguna Niguel Regional Park and Ralph B. Clark Regional Park in Fullerton, Miller said. The mounds at Laguna Niguel no longer appear to be active. Workers noticed the outbreak in Clark park just last week, he said.

“You’re never going to get these after just one shot,” said Bill Tidwell, who supervises the county’s efforts to stamp out the ants. “It will be a continual effort. You have to be diligent.”