O.C. Ends Fire Ant Eradication Program

The Orange County Vector Control District decided Thursday to shut down a program aimed at controlling red imported fire ants. About a dozen workers were laid off.

The move came five months after the state Department of Agriculture said it would stop funding the program because of California’s fiscal problems.

Orange County officials said they feared the decision could significantly affect the county’s quality of life. Fire ants are considered a threat to agriculture and have attacked people.

“It’s going to change the way people utilize the outdoors here,” said Carolyn Cavecche, a member of the vector district’s board of directors and one of the minority who voted to spare the program. “People do not realize how much of a service we provided and what the impact is going to be.... Just ask anybody who’s been bitten by a fire ant.”

In September, the agriculture department announced it was canceling the $5.2-million-a-year program to help reduce the state’s budget deficit.

Since then, the county has kept the program afloat with emergency grants. But when the money ran out this week, the district voted 21 to 8 to cancel the program, a move that meant immediate layoffs for about a dozen workers.

The district contracted with the county to handle the fire ant program. Vector officials said they would not use district funds to continue the program.

Several cities had pledged money to keep the program afloat, but it was not enough, officials said.

Doug Davert, a Tustin City Council member who serves on the vector district’s board of directors, argued unsuccessfully to spare the program for another week. He said he thought it was improper for the board to take the action without first notifying affected cities.

The board took action even though the item wasn’t on its agenda, saying that “urgency” required immediate action.

“A good question is why they didn’t ask the cities for more” money, Davert said. “I don’t know if we could have or not -- we all have tight budgets -- but we weren’t given the opportunity.”

Fire ants, believed to have arrived in the United States in the 1930s aboard cargo ships, are known for fierce bites that leave painful, itchy welts. They also have been known to kill wildlife, such as quail and deer, and devour crops.