Aussies warned as biosecurity 'disaster' threatens to spiral out of control
Several breaches have been recorded across the country in recent weeks, with Invasive Species Council's Reece Pianta telling Yahoo News the "outlier detections" of fire ants are "starting to pile up" with the potential for devastating consequences.
While authorities battle to contain the outbreak in southeast Queensland, an immature fire ant nest was found outside of the eradication zone on a property over the border in Tweed Heads, Northern NSW, earlier this month. Another nest of fire ants was discovered at a BHP coal mine in central Queensland last week.
A third incident was reported thousands of kilometres away in Perth, Western Australia, when a staff member of a business spotted suspected fire ants on a pallet inside a shipping container that came from southeast Queensland on June 17.
While each outbreak has been "intercepted and dealt with", what this signals to Pianta is that resources used to contain the discoveries are being distracted from what he argues should be our main priority — the eradication effort.
"It's a clear indicator that more resources are needed to get the fire ant nests under control, otherwise we could lose our chance to protect Australia from fire ants forever," he warned.
It's expected the invasive pest could devastate native wildlife populations, cut agricultural output by 40 per cent, and their excruciating stings could cause over 650,000 extra medical appointments every year.
"We're talking about a potentially $2 billion economic impact, the potential of our native species going extinct and the potential of human fatalities if they get out of control," he warned.
Fire ants were first detected in the Brisbane area in February 2001, but it's thought they may have arrived in the country up to 20 years earlier.
It's not known exactly how they entered Australia, but it's suspected they arrived in shipping containers from America.
Our climate and lack of natural predators make Australia a perfect home for fire ants, with the Invasive Species Council warning that more than 97% of Australia is a suitable climate for fire ants.
If they are not eradicated, their impacts could surpass the damage done by our worst invasive pests, including feral cats, wild dogs, camels, foxes, rabbits, and cane toads.
Eradicating fire ants "has to be" Australia's number one priority, Pianta said.
"It affects so many parts of our society. If we can't deal with this problem, I don't see how we can deal with any of the other thousands of invasive species facing our country," he warned.
"It's time for governments to understand this is a disaster. It's as bad for our country as any flood, fire or pandemic. This is an emergency and we are trying to deal with this problem with half measures, slow decision-making, and underfunding. It's time to get serious."
While the government has spent $690m to contain and eradicate the species since 2001, Pianta argues it's simply not enough.
"We've been warning for years now that there are simply too many fire ant nests inside the fire ant containment zone," he said.
Pianta hopes to see extended treatment windows and innovative weather-resistant bait treatments used to contain the outbreak in the southeast of Queensland.
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