Fire Ants Defeating Eradication Force

Despite a $6-million budget and a small army of field technicians enlisted to fight them, the fire ants are winning--and heading north out of Orange County.

With newly discovered colonies in seven communities, including the north Orange County cities of La Habra and Placentia, authorities are bracing for a broader invasion.

Officials with the Orange County Fire Ant Authority attribute the rise in reported outbreaks to warm weather, which draws the ants out, and more technicians in the field locating them. They warn that the infestation is greater than suspected and urge more detection efforts in neighboring counties.

Imported fire ants were first discovered at a handful of sites in Orange County in November 1998; now there are 1,039 colonies. Los Angeles County is a distant second with 193 sites. Riverside County has 79 and San Bernardino has 69. San Diego County has fewer than 10.

Red fire ants eat plants and can damage electrical equipment by gnawing on wires. Their painful sting can be fatal for the small percentage of people allergic to them. They have infested some Southern and Western states for decades.

John Kabashima, a UC Cooperative Extension horticulture advisor, said Southern California counties need to do more detection work. “We’re hitting the tip of the iceberg here,” Kabashima said.

Los Angeles County communities with infestations include Whittier, Cerritos, La Mirada, Lakewood, La Puente, West Covina and Walnut.

“Our infestation is predominantly associated with the border we share with Orange County,” said Robert Atkins, Los Angeles County’s chief deputy agricultural commissioner.

Atkins said the most recent fire ant discoveries in the San Fernando Valley were isolated but worrisome. Those ants did not come from fresh mounds but from well-established colonies in “big multiple mounds, indicative of having been developed,” he said.

“We believe that more money is needed to do searches,” Atkins said. His office so far has a $627,000 budget for the eradication effort. “We need to put a lot of money up front to fight this.”

Orange County officials contend that their $5.9-million program is working and that the new fire ant discoveries were expected.

That is partly because of the program’s public outreach, which includes having residents use potato chips as lawn bait. Once an ant climbs on a chip, residents are asked to place it in a plastic bag and use dish soap or alcohol to kill the ant before mailing it to authorities for identification.

The county has already spent $1.1 million on salaries, the purchase of 21 vehicles and office leases, including its headquarters in Lake Forest and a satellite office in Buena Park.

Richard Bowen, a former Marine lieutenant colonel, was hired as director in February to help develop the county’s five-year battle plan against red fire ants.

The county has reported some successes, especially at O’Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon, which had 100 mounds a year ago, Bowen said.

“Now you can take your kid out there and have a peaceful picnic,” he said.

Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, whose district includes most of the infestation area, said his office has fielded 3,000 calls from residents since the outbreak. He believes the county’s program is working.

“The public education campaign is only beginning, and I said from the very beginning this is a five- to seven-year eradication program,” Spitzer said.

The authority has 18 workers and borrows field technicians from a local vector control district when they are available.

Plans call for 10 more employees and continued help from half a dozen people through the conservation corps.

So far, Orange County has received the lion’s share of state funding for eradication because it has the largest infestation and is under a state-ordered quarantine on nursery products.

Many of the county’s 300 nursery operators complain that the imported fire ants are costing the industry as much as $3 million a year to drench each plant with pesticide before it can be sold.

“And that’s not only drenching, but treatment of the soils,” said Gary Hayakawa, legislative chairman of the California Assn. of Nurserymen. “Once the county was quarantined, it affected all nurseries whether they have the imported red fire ants or not.”

In Riverside County, two agencies have been allotted more than $1.5 million to handle ant infestations. The Coachella Valley’s vast tracts of irrigated lawns have become home to large numbers of ants.

“We’re seeing small yards with as many as 30 mounds and whole country clubs that are infested,” said county official Mark Conrad.

Many people, Conrad said, are unaware of the problem. “I don’t think people really notice them on their lawns,” he said. “I guess it’s too hot at this time of year to be walking around on their lawns.”

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Times staff writer Monte Morin contributed to this story.