Spam to be used as bait for invasive ‘bigheaded’ ants in O.C.

State agricultural officials plan to use cans of Spam to lure a colony of so-called bigheaded ants to see how far the invasive species has spread in Orange County.

The colony of bigheaded ants, otherwise known by their scientific name, Pheidole megacephala, was recently discovered in the Costa Mesa neighborhood of Mesa Verde, making it the first time the species has surfaced in California.

Officials told the Orange County Register that the ants are drawn to the canned meat because it’s oily and high in protein.

More than 1,500 bait stations will be set in seven Orange County cities in the coming days as entomologists attempt to determine how widespread the invasion is and how the reddish-brown insects arrived in California.

Once the ants are collected, they will be sent to a lab for identification, the Register reported.

The ants are native to Africa but are sometimes found in humid regions such as Florida and Hawaii. But officials believe the bulbous-headed ants probably arrived in the state on a plant or in a shipment that was overlooked by agriculture inspectors.

While the ants don’t pose a significant threat to humans, they can displace native ant populations and present problems for other insects, as well as agriculture, said Richard Tiffer, a plant pathologist with the Orange County agricultural commissioner’s office.

The future of Costa Mesa’s exotic ants will be up to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which could exterminate them or leave them be, he said.