Aerial Spraying Won’t Be Part of Fire Ant Fight

State agriculture officials planning the battle against fire ants have ruled out the option of spreading pesticide from the air over Orange County to control the stinging, swarming insects.

State Agriculture Secretary William J. Lyons Jr. said Thursday that his department is not recommending aerial application, a controversial approach that has dominated recent public debate over how to stem California’s first major fire-ant invasion. A final control plan is still under review.

The specter of helicopters spreading chemically treated bait over suburban neighborhoods has stoked opposition among many residents. It has also split scientists, with some warning that aerial application is California’s only hope of banishing altogether an ant that can hurt people, livestock and wildlife alike. Others worry that broadcasting pesticide from the air could kill other ants and wildlife and taint local waterways.

Lyons said his department made the decision after cautious study.

“Aerial application is not in the plan that the California Department of Food and Agriculture is currently developing,” Lyons said. “It’s just a treatment we can’t recommend.”

The ant has infested at least 50 square miles of Orange County and portions of Los Angeles and Riverside counties, with some experts estimating it has lived here five years or more.

Some fear the pest will irrevocably alter Southern California’s famous outdoor-oriented lifestyle, forcing people to be on the lookout for mounds along sidewalks, on golf courses and in their own backyards. The ant’s painful sting can cause severe allergic reactions or even death among those few people allergic to it.

The discovery of the fire-ant infestation has confronted Gov. Gray Davis’ administration with one of its first major environmental policy decisions, one that has dredged up memories of the widespread furor over malathion spraying to control the Mediterranean fruit fly.

By ruling out an aerial attack on red imported fire ants, agricultural officials may defuse potential opposition to their battle against the ants. That decision appears to have been made before the Monday publication of a Times Orange County poll indicating that 58% oppose aerial use of chemicals to fight fire ants, with only 30% approving the technique.

State agriculture officials are currently finishing up a plan to control the fire ant, a newcomer to California but a longtime pest in 10 Southeastern states and Texas. That plan could be released next week, a state spokesman said. Although aerial application will not be included, the plan could include a wide range of measures, such as widespread treating of fire-ant mounds with a pesticide called fenoxycarb, spread on corn-grit bait soaked with oil.

One county environmental leader said she is relieved the state is not rushing to spread fenoxycarb from the air.

“The fear is that you’re targeting the fire ants, but what else do you get?” said biologist Elisabeth Brown, president of the environmental group Laguna Greenbelt and a board member of the Nature Reserve of Orange County, which oversees a 37,000-acre preserve for rare plants and animals.

“I think it’s probably best to spot treat before we aerially broadcast until we really know what the side effects are,” Brown said. She theorized that ant-fighters could carry backpacks with chemical agents and search out individual mounds. “I think it’s worth doing thoroughly, if you do it at all.”

A federal biologist expressed cautious approval. “I haven’t had an opportunity to review the overall program,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Will Miller, “but typically, we would be supportive of not doing aerial application, just because you can be more selective with the pesticide.”

A Florida scientist who helped advise California officials about the fire ant said that while he is not taking a position, widespread ground application can be an arduous task.

“You have to enter every backyard, every alley, every nook and cranny,” said Walter R. Tschinkel, professor of biological science at Florida State University. “I think it would be a real challenge to do it that way, mound to mound.”

A scientific advisory committee, of which Tschinkel was a member, reached a consensus this winter that aerial spreading was necessarily to eradicate the fire ant.

Some scientists warn the state not to dally too long in planning a fire-ant assault on the ants this spring, since their mating and breeding in the Southeast is traditionally triggered by warm rains--which may be mimicked by sprinkler systems and warm weather in the lushly landscaped residential areas of Orange County.

“The longer you wait, the better it is for the fire ant,” said David F. Williams, lead scientist for the fire-ant biocontrol project at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But some environmentalists have warned against hurriedly approving widespread pesticide use without carefully reviewing the consequences.

The Agriculture Department said earlier its plan would be completed by the end of February. But spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said Thursday that it remains under study and could be released next week.

Secretary Lyons “wants to make sure everything is addressed and that it’s a very, very good plan,” Hidalgo said. After the agriculture secretary finishes his review, it will be forwarded to Gov. Davis.

Still not clear is whether the state is leaning toward a countywide effort or a more targeted approach. Some federal, state and county employees most familiar with Orange County’s landscape and waters said they do not know what the plan contains.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife office that deals with Orange County, for instance, is not familiar with plan details, said biologist Miller. The office wants to be kept informed so that it can decide if rare or endangered plants and animals could be affected, he said.

“It’s kind of a balance--which is worst, the pest or the pesticide?” said Carol Roberts, a contaminants expert at the office. A number of biologists fear the ant will further weaken the many rare animals in Southern California--from lizards and insects to songbirds--as it reportedly has in the Southeast.