$6 Million Approved to Fight Ants

County supervisors on Tuesday approved using $6 million in state funds to eradicate red imported fire ants, which now infest more than 500 square miles of Orange County.

The vote comes a month after supervisors approved a program to eradicate red fire ants by the Orange County Vector Control District with funding from the state Department of Food and Agriculture, county Agriculture Commissioner Rick LeFeuvre said.

But the original program only included funding through June of this year, he said.

The new program will run through June 2001, LeFeuvre said, and was spurred in part by a meeting between Department Secretary William J. Lyons Jr. and Board of Supervisors Chairman Charles V. Smith last month.

“Once [Lyons] understood our problems here in Orange County, he went to bat for us,” said Smith, who told Lyons of the program’s importance.

Officials hope the pesky insect, which at one time threatened the region’s agricultural industry, will be eradicated through the use of bait designed to make the queen infertile.

Part of the plan calls for spreading a slow-acting sterilization agent in infested areas and launching a public education campaign about the stinging ant, which last year established its first major West Coast colonies in Orange County and portions of Los Angeles and Riverside counties.

The county has a five-year battle plan but key is obtaining more funding beyond 2001, said LeFeuvre, who is optimistic the county can secure continuous funding for five years.

LeFeuvre could not say when the eradication effort would begin. The contracts still have to be signed by the state, the county and vector control agency.