Foreign fire ant invasion still keeping Sackville woman out of her yard

SACKVILLE - Summer is almost over and Sackville resident Marion Hickey is still unable to enjoy her backyard pool. Thanks to the continued presence of European Fire Ants (Myrmica rubra Linnaeus), Hickey remains unable to have full use of her Beaver Bank Cross Road property. The aggressive ants utilize a sting which is extremely painful and can cause anaphylactic shock. In mid-August, her husband, Wayne, was stung twice on the back by the ants.

"It looked like he had been kicked," Hickey said. "When animals have forced people into their homes, there's a problem. Homeowners need to get their land back, but they can't do it themselves."

Together, with her neighbours, Hickey hired the services of Braemar Pest Control in July for a three-pronged approach in fighting the infestation. This involved spraying the ants above ground, laying poison baits and using probes to deliver insecticide below ground. This met with limited success, but the pests have not been defeated.

"We are making little in-roads," Hickey admitted. "But they are still in pockets."

Fortunately, for Hickey and her neighbours, Braemar offered them a guarantee to rid them of the insects. Additional costly sprayings, which have been necessary, are covered under this guarantee. Other homeowners facing the same scourge may not be as lucky. And now the ants are being identified in more locations in HRM, as well as other parts of the province.

Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology for the Museum of Natural History, has received reports of the fire ants in Sackville, Halifax, Dartmouth, Spryfield, Fleming Park, Eastern Passage and Fairview. There have also been reports from Abercrombie in Pictou County, indicating that the range of the invader is more widespread than originally believed.

Hebda attributes the increase in reports to press coverage - the ants in Abercrombie have been there for over 50 years - but he cited other reasons as well.

"With the short-term changes in climate on this coast, this may be a factor," he explained in an email interview. "In Maine, where they appeared about 100 years ago, they did not reach significant densities until late 1990, and are now acting like Bio-invasives. The biggest change, I suspect, is the movement of people and goods, allowing for new species to arrive at a higher frequency than in the past."

Retired provincial entomologist, Eric Georgeson has been watching the infestation in Abercrombie. According to Georgeson this is a large area which appears to be expanding.

"I'm trying to find out what other people are doing," he explained. "But I can't get any feel for what's actually working. Results are inconsistent and spotty. There is no silver-bullet. Up to 100 queens can be in a colony. This means you can kill 99 per cent and still have a problem."

Georgeson suggested three main avenues of attack. Chief among these was the need for a coordinator to keep track of the various infestations, and decide where to hit and what to use.

"You also need to research if the biological behaviour has changed since the ant moved here from Europe," Georgeson said. "Has it changed again since being here? Third, you need to develop integrated pest control for homeowners."

Calls to the Department of Health and HRM are directed to Clean Nova Scotia which has published some information on the ants. At present the invasive species are not regarded as a health issue. However, Georgeson and those living with the ants disagree.

"It is a health issue," Georgeson stated. "So far we've been lucky."

Sharing this viewpoint, Hickey argued, "The government needs to get involved. Unfortunately, it'll take a child going into anaphylactic shock to get them involved."

atoal@ns.sympatico.ca