Fire ants have been discovered at a burgeoning suburb on the Sunshine Coast.
A local property developer found and reported a suspect fire ant nest at Palmview on Tuesday.
National Fire Ant Eradication Program eradication officers visited the site and destroyed multiple nests using direct nest injection.
They were set to undertake further eradication activities, including intensive treatment and surveillance, up to 500m from the detection site, to protect the area.
Compliance checks and tracing of materials that can carry fire ants will be assessed to help determine the source of the ants.
Fire ants can travel in materials such as soil, hay, mulch, manure, quarry materials, turf, and potted plants. Human-assisted movement is the biggest risk to their spread.
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Palmview is outside the NFAEP containment boundary line and the discovery followed reported nests in other areas of the Sunshine Coast, including near Yandina in January and at Nirimba and Banya and Currimundi last year.
The NFAEP said fire ant detections outside the program’s containment boundary “do happen from time to time” and the program has procedures in place to manage them.
The NFAEP urged residents and workers at Palmview to look for and report suspect ants and nests online at fireants.org.au or by calling 132 ANT (13 22 68).
The NFAEP stated that “eradicating fire ants requires a whole-of-community approach”.
“The program needs everyone to: look for and report fire ants; allow our teams property access to conduct eradication activities; and take steps to prevent the spread of this invasive pest.
Visit fireants.org.au or call 132 ANT (13 22 68) for more information.
