Fighting Fire Ants in Orange County Could Cost Millions

Banishing invading fire ants from the Orange County area could take five years or longer and cost as much as $100 million in the first year, state officials said Friday.

But despite those daunting numbers, the officials say that they are serious about combating the aggressive, stinging insects that have already infested 50 square miles of the county.

The method mentioned most is aerial sprinkling of a pesticide that acts as a kind of birth control, sterilizing queen fire ants and curbing the spread of the South American native. If that method is chosen, the California Department of Food and Agriculture could start applying the chemical in Orange County as early as this spring.

But even the experts admit they cannot say how long it would take to rid the county of the insects--if it can be done at all. A key question is whether to try to prevent the insects from migrating or to try to eradicate them.

“We should prepare ourselves for three to five years to do this,” said Pat Minyard, branch chief with the agriculture department’s pest prevention section. “We’re going to be in this for a long period of time.”

The three pesticides being considered have all undergone extensive testing and are considered safe for use around humans, pets and other vertebrates, state officials said.

More than 200 people crammed into a meeting room in Santa Ana on Friday afternoon to hear state and county officials report how and why fire ants should be controlled.

The insects build mounds as tall as 18 inches on golf courses, in gardens and on irrigated lawns. Besides devouring plants, they frequently chew and damage wiring. Their bites can be extremely painful.

Fire ants have long been a problem in Southern states. Their recent arrival in California is stirring deep concern among residents, the nursery industry and scientists.

Some fear that insects will force outdoor-loving residents to change their lifestyles, casting a pall on everyday events like barbecues, gardening and golf. In some ant-infested states children are told not to play outdoors in their bare feet.

To date, Orange County appears to be the hotbed of California ant activity. Fire ants have been found in 15 cities and three unincorporated communities since autumn, when their presence was first announced. They have been found as far west as Los Alamitos and Cypress, north to Anaheim and as far south as Mission Viejo and San Juan Capistrano.

Fire ants have also shown up in nurseries in Los Angeles and Riverside counties, in a Moreno Valley neighborhood and on two golf courses in Palm Desert.

State survey workers, who still have not found the outer borders of the infestation, say that the ants may have been living here as long as five years.

Several people at Friday’s meeting said they want the ants eliminated, even if that means widespread pesticide use. They said action should be taken soon, before the ants spread further.

“You only get one shot at it,” said Santa Ana resident Lon H. Records. If Southern Californians are forced to live with the ants, he said, “you don’t want to set your kid or your grandkid on the lawn. . . . It would restrict life as we know it.”

Others were more cautious, including Pete DeSimone, who manages a National Audubon Society sanctuary in southern Orange County. He said that aerial spreading of pesticide in the protected area “is something we feel is inappropriate.”

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More information is available from the state agriculture department at (800) 491-1899 or on the department’s Web site, www.cdfa.ca.gov