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Invasion

It proliferates in an extraordinary way in areas disturbed by man and is at present invading the whole World thanks to him.

The LFA has been ranked in the World Top 10 of Invasive Species by international specialists, far above more famous pests like the migratory locust.
It is not by chance, everything is excessive with this species:

• Its reproductive capacity is enormous ;
• Its adaptation to habitats disturbed by man is extraordinary ;
• Its resistance to all control methods, physical or chemical, is so far absolute ;
• We know of no predator, no parasite, no disease ;
• Its venom is particularly virulent and destructive ;
• It destroys or expels all living organisms appart from those that it uses.

There are few detailed infestation maps, most are unknown (Gabon, New-Caledonia, Vanuatu, Israel, etc.)
We present here those we have been able to get.
 

World

Source: Discover Life-ONU/ISSG.

It originates from Central America where it doesn't proliferate in the wild.
The ISSG has made a site on Invasive Species. We have translated the main information about this ant into French, here.
 
Recent studies shown that all the queens are clones (Clonal reproduction by males and females in the little fire ant. Denis Fournier et al. Nature Vol. 435 : 1230-1234 (2005). and Site du CNRS: Guerre des sexes chez une fourmi : reproduction clonale des mâles et des reines)
 
This may explain why, even if winged, nobody has ever seen one flying: The principal aim of the nuptial swarm is to select the most genetically robust pairs. It has no interest if all are clones.
 

The worldwide invasion is thus due to man only.

Tahiti (Polynesia)

Global

The LFA has been invading Tahiti since early 90's.
Its introduction certainly went unnoticed at start.

As soon as our Press broadcasted the disaster (Les Nouvelles de Tahiti, 12 octobre 2004, p.9) some Fenua Animalia activists and private citizens started to relay the alert and to try - alone and without resources - to compile a contaminated areas inventory.
This work ran for more than eight months without any official reaction. The Agriculture Ministry was said to have taken charge of this catastrophe from the month of April 2005. Since, that is to say more than a year after, the inventory work had stopped. An emergency cleaning attempt organized by this Ministry happened during July and August 2005, on the basis of our results, but nothing has been done after. The Agriculture Ministry recently announced in October 2006 that it has discharged itself of this burden in January 2006.
The tiny Environment Ministry started then to take this burden and do its best with the light attributed grants and external private supports...

For those wondering about the speed of colonies discoveries since the first alert, here is a PowerPoint file just spotting it on Tahiti's map, in chronological order.
 
The situation on fields today seems to be at least as dramatic as in 2004:
 

GoogleEarth

The set of all GPS waypoints registered since the first detection has been exported from the Polynesian Environment GIS (= Geographical Informatic System) in a file which automatically transfers its content in the GoogleEarth freeware (kmz files).
For those who installed this software on their machine, the following link under will open GoogleEarth, and put these datas in the "Temporary Places" folder (left side of the Google Earth window). You will be able to either place it in your "Preffered Places", or to save it onto your hard disk (option available with a right clic on the loaded folder, in "Temporary places").
 
This 506 Kb file, pff-gis-ge22.kmz, is updated regularly. Its present issue is of December 8, 2008.
 
Red dots are LFA positive, green ones are safe, other colors are for uncertain cases (no ants, test lost, etc.)
 
Like often, the way that our SIG places dots in its maps is not the same as in Google Earth, this leads a gap of some meters to some dozen of meters occurring between both. Thus, this file gives false results when examinated with a great accuracy, especially when in altitude, but it gives a good idea of what is running on Tahiti.
 
It is organized in sub-folders that you may check or uncheck to get an idea. Double-clicking successively on each name in the "colonies connues" sub-folder makes you fly above one after the other.
 
For those who can't use it, here is an other PowerPoint taking its main: PFF2005-2007.pps (5.7 Mb, of March 16, 2008)

Map

List

We have now 39 known colonies, that is, from East to West:
 

That is more than 500 hectares "flat", e.g. on map, without taking account of the topography, and spreaded across 7 communes.

Communes

Papenoo

The Commune of Papenoo is located at the North-East of Tahiti Island.
The situation there is unknown, apart from the LFA colony found at the mouth of the river of the same name.
 
It is joined to the neighbouring communes to form the de Hitiaa O Tera district, which with about 8,700 inhabitants, ranks 12^th among Tahiti's communes.
 
It is on the East coast, which is well watered by Trade Winds rains.
LFA having a marked preference for non-arid areas, its eradication in this commune threatens to be fairly tough.
 
Papenoo counts 2 or 3 known colonies, the first listed as soon as late 2004:
 
 
 
The equidistance between the contour lines is 20 m.
This map scales to 1,4 km width, 1 km height.
 
Each well marked point in green or red meets the GPS coordinates of a test or a test sequence.
The cloud of red dots is an estimation of the contamination width.
 
Areas without points are unsurveyed zones.
 
At the end of this street is a building materials factory. It sends, thus, its products across the whole country. The company is aware of the problem and does its best to avoid participating in the spread of this pest.
Ants enter homes, like elsewhere: Inhabitants are, of course, deeply concerned.
 
2007 brings the sad news of two infestations deep in the biggest valley of Tahiti.
 

Mahina

Mahina's commune is on the northeast of Tahiti.
With more than 14.500 inhabitants, it ranks in 6^th position among Tahiti's communes.
Its geographical position put it at the climatic frontier between the East coast watered under the Trade Winds and the slightly drier West side.
LFA having a pronounced preference for non-arid areas, its eradication in this commune will be tough, when it is scheduled.
 
Mahina has not less than 21 inventoried colonies in January 2008:
 
The less badly known commune is apparently the most contaminated. We evaluate now at about 60% the tested surface area in this commune:
 


 
The equidistance between the contour lines is 20 m.
Each black-ringed point with a green or red centre meets the GPS coordinates of a test or a test sequence.
Where there are no points, these are areas not pooled.
 
That is 21 colonies, not yet in contact, ranking in size from few square meters to about 250 ha (the biggest found, today) and with one deep in the mountain, wetlands (Ahonu Valley).
An evaluation of the contaminated areas on the Direction de l'Environnement GIS is available here (pdf file - 413 Kb).

Arue

Arue's commune join Mahina's one, the northeast one of Tahiti, West side.
With more than 9.500 inhabitants, it ranks in 10^th position among Tahiti's communes.
Its geographical position put it at the climatic frontier between the East coast watered under the Trade Winds and the slightly drier West side.
 
Arue count 5 inventoried colonies on the 4 April 2008.
 
It is a badly known commune, thus, apparently lightly contaminated.
We evaluate to about 10 % the pooled surface in this commune:
 

 
 
That is 5 colonies two of which being deep in mountain, in wetlands.

Tefaaroa

Mainly in the bush:
 

Terua

Above the Arue military camp:
 

Taharaa

Awfully in the bush:
 

Radisson

each side of the resort:
 

Pirae

Pirae's commune is between the capital Papeete and Arue's commune.
With more than 14.700 inhabitants, it ranks in 5^th position among Tahiti's communes.
Its geographical position put it at the begining of the West Coast, a few drier than the other one.
 
It is a badly known commune, thus, apparently lightly contaminated.
We evaluate to about less than 1% the pooled surface in this commune.
 
Pirae counts 1 colony recorded on the 3 April 2007:
 

 

 
This colony is identified, its frontiers are known. The inhabitants reacted, in the main, very well by treating together the greatest part of this colony when discovered, without waiting for an official reaction.
 
That is 1 colony established at less than 150 m far from the town hall and from the Service de l'Hygiène Scolaire reception centre where, each year, the more than 35.000 pupils of whole country are bound to come for their compulsory medical visit.

Papeete

Papeete commune, the capital, is at the North-West of Tahiti Island.
With more than 26.000 inhabitants, it ranks in 2^nd position among Tahiti's communes, and has more than a fifth of the Island population.
Its geographical position shelters it a bit from Trade winds, and so it is drier than the East coast communes (Papenoo and Mahina) contaminated with LFA.
 
The LFA pooling in Papeete has barely begun. We estimate now at 5% the pooled surface in this commune.
However it counts at least 2 colonies, listed end-2006 and located on the same crest: Sainte Amélie and Pic Vert districts:
 

Sainte Amélie

This colony is one of the most recently discovered (November 2006).
It seems to have silently settled there since three years at least, that is to say after the first general alert and involves more than thirty houses.
 
It is located at about a hundred meters far from the city heart (avenue Bruat - place Tarahoi)
As it is not officially a housing estate but a in a heavily built-up district without common management its eradication will not be easy. Its extent in the bush is consistent.

Local TV show made with help from the Environment Ministry, 3 October 2006, in a banana plantation adjacent to houses.

Pic Vert - Mamaia

This colony was listed by the "Service du Développement Rural" (SDR) early 2005.
It seems to have its origin in the building of houses (this photo is not recent).
 
The lack of communication between services and the lack of communication from and within the Agriculture Ministry meant that this colony has officially only been included in the fight against LFA since the Agriculture Ministry abandonned the management to the Environment Ministry (end 2006), that is to say more than a year and a half after its discovery!
 
It is located high on the mountain but in an urbanized area.

 

 

Faa'a

Faa'a commune is located at the North-West of Tahiti Island. It adjoins the capital, Papeete, and shelters the International Airport.
With more than 30.000 inhabitants, it is the most populous of Tahiti's communes.
Its geographical position shelters it a little from Trade winds.
 
LFA pooling in Faa'a is embryonic. We estimate the pooled surface in this commune at just 1 % at the moment.
There is at least 1 colony.
This colony was discovered in October 2006:
 

Punaauia

Punaauia commune covers a third of the West coast of Tahiti Island.
 
With more than 25.000 inhabitants, it ranks in 3^rd position among Tahiti's communes, with a fifth of the Island population.
 
Its geographical position shelters it a bit from Trade Winds, and it is therefore drier than Mahina and Papenoo.
Its great width and extensive industrial development, particularly at the mouth of Punaruu Valley, are further challenges to entirely eradicate its ants.
 
Punaauia counts 5 colonies listed end-2006 and far from each others.
The term "pk" means "kilometric point", or distance in kilometres counted from the centre of the capital, Papeete:
 

 
The equidistance between the contour lines is 20 m on all maps below.
 
Punaauia is contaminated by at least five colonies spread along more than 8 km, the biggest known being Punavai, followed by the colony at the "Pointe des Pêcheurs" (= fishermen's wharf).
 
The remainder of the commune, that is at least 80% of inhabited areas remains still totally unknown today.
We estimate now from 10 to 15 % the tested surface of this commune.
 

Pk 10 - Lotissement Te Tavake

This colony is one of the tiniest known, discovered by a pupil during field work managed by a Biology teacher. It is also the most monitored.
It engulfs half a dozen houses and a private attempt in 2005 to eradicate it seems to have eliminated more than 90% of the ants. The remainder of the housing estate has been entirely and collectively tested in depth (about every 10-20 m) by the inhabitants themselves and with us and is revealed to be unharmed at this time.
That way, it is the colony which had been the most fought against during the year 2005, even if the method followed was a bit messy. (see: Te Tavake seen by the ISSG.)
The fact that the whole contaminated surface is inside a single residence is, by the merging of the centralized management of each individual interests, one more important asset to help elimination there.

Pk 12 - Punavai Montagne

This colony covers yet several dozen hectares located mainly in a quasi-wild low altitude zone, though deeply marked by human activities.
It is not included in a housing estate but covers different private properties, uncoordinated.
Its eradication is, for these two reasons at least, problematic.

Pk 15 - Pointe des pêcheurs

As for the previous one, this colony of some dozen hectares is not located in a housing estate.
It is, for now, the only one that has been inventoried on the coastal side of the Island belt road (roads are biological barriers for the natural spread of LFA).
It consists of a luxury hostel and numerous private homes.

Pk 17 - Sous le lotissement Te Maru Ata

This colony is bigger than that at Te Tavake (may be double).
Nor it is located in a housing estate, even if those living there feel extremely concerned by the threat at their gates.
It was, in 2005, subject of eradication attempts by either private individuals or by the Agriculture Ministry.
Nevertheless, it is not easy to eradicate, on account of the topography of this zone (some very steep slopes) and, because of the extra human energy required, as with all the other colonies outside residential areas, despite that all the concerned people are aware.

Pk 18.2 - Papehue

Papehue Valley has a biodiversity among the richest of Tahiti (endemic bird Monarch of Tahiti, endemic tree snails, genus Partula, several endemic plant species, etc.)
 
The colony here was listed first by the Agriculture Ministry in 2005, informed by the family which had been its vector (see below). As precise data were given by the SDR (Agriculture Ministry) only in late 2006, its exact frontiers are still unknown today.
 
It is located about 800 m Northward of Papehue River's mouth and is a relatively small size (< 2 ha).
 
The colony had been created in 2003 by a gardener working in Mahina who carried back green waste to compost it at home. As soon as he knew what was going on (first public alert the 12 October 2004), he immediately stopped any activity and tried to kill it by burning his compost and watering it with pesticides after. It was too late: The surrounding jungle was already contaminated.
 
A satellite colony of some square meters has been detected nearby, in a neighbouring home where they used some of this contaminated compost in their vanilla field.

Analysis

Despite the disappointingly low surface areas studied to date, the total contamination area in French Polynesia is just above 400 hectares.
According to different ISSG searchers, the threshold of irreversible is between 100 and 500 hectares depending on the climate and the topography of contaminated areas.
This limit, on Tahiti Island, is thus either already reached or very close to be.
 
On December 15, 2006, La Dépêche de Tahiti newspaper reported that four catamaran ships have been quarantined in Uturoa's harbour on Raiatea Island after that Biosecurity agents, the Département de la Protection des Végétaux, found LFA in the inside of the floats.
These ships were comming from Ahonu Valley, Mahina.
This event starkly proves that whole Polynesia is permantently under threat and that constant vigilance is vital:

How many deliveries happened on other Islands since early 1990's?

Good news is, for now, that:

1. It is not a matter of a single contaminated area but several small ones, the biggest reaching certainly already 300 true ha.
2. All discovered colonies are in urban or sub-urban zones, thus access to their frontiers are quite easy in comparison with the steep Island centre.
3. All these colonies are thus in drier zones than those in the centre, and high humidity is a favourable factor for their proliferation.
4. Some inhabitants in contaminated areas treat more or less regularly their domain and sometimes some of its surroundings. These colonies are thus weakened by these treatments which, by emptying temporarily some LFA-conquered areas, reduce the colony mass effect.

The situation is thus not totally lost, however it is extremely critical.

Cairns (Australia)

LFA have been detected in the suburbs of Smithfield and Kewarra Beach, about 10 miles North of Cairns centre (Queensland). An eradication program is underway at these sites.
The contamination is rather small, but its dispersal is already consistent in this area.
Datas shown here are partial.
More details are available on the Queensland Biosecurity website.
 
2007 known situation:

Source: Biosecurity Queensland (comm. pers.)

To see this closer under Google Earth, if you have it installed, open this kewarra.kmz (2 Kb).

Hawaii (USA)

LFA were discovered on Maui and Big Island.
It seems that the incursion on Maui Island is now eradicated.
 
Known situation in 2006:

Source: USGSC (comm. pers.)

To see this closer under Google Earth, if you have it installed, open this hawaii.kmz (3 Kb).

Florida (USA)

Known situation in 2000:

Source: Institute of Food and Agricultural Science - University of Florida.