LAKE FOREST
First comes the pain, then the burning. Within hours, a blister forms around each sting of the fire ant, which has infested more than 500 square miles of Orange County.
“It felt like being stung by a wasp,” said Jerry Sims of the Lake Forest-based Orange County Fire Ant Authority, who has experienced the painful bites.
Today, the agency is hosting area politicians and city officials for an educational meeting on how to eradicate the 1/4-inch-long tropical insects.
Twenty-two of the county’s 33 cities have reported fire ant infestations since the insects were discovered two years ago.
The agency expects it will take at least five years to eradicate the destructive ants.
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