Australia has a crazy ant problem | ABC News

Here in the states we have been bombarded with fire ants. Many of us use Boric Acid, purchased cheaply, into which we add 1/4 of powder sugar to the 3/4 boric acid mixture, and sprinkle it onto the top of fire ant nest. The powder sugar attracts them to take the boric acid into their nest and to the eggs and queen. They cannot digest boric acid, and therefore swell up and die. Hope this helps you, down under!

When I was in Brazil, I was staying at the top of a massive hotel, it had like 30 floors or more. And guess what I found in my room? Yellow crazy ants. They're like the terminator of ants. Edit: I just realised it was actually the Pharaoh ant. lol.

This does not talk about control regimes either in action or a strategy being planned. Briefly there is the mention of baits being handed out, but nothing more.

One of the results of "globalization"....in Florida we're absolutely overrun with invasive species of insects, plants, reptiles and fish..

Im an Aussie native ant keeper and I hate seeing invasive species of ants drive out the native ones as well as wildlife. Its good to make videos about this and you explained well how the ants operate.

A couple of years ago, we had a lot of bushfires in New South Wales in Australia. In Canberra, the very thick smoke settled on us for about a week. Since then, we have had no ants near our house. We used to have sugar ants, medium sized ants and tiny ants. Now we have none.

Lost in the Amazon jungle for a week all I lived on were caterpillars. When rescuers arrived I became so excited I got butterflies in my stomach.

Would have been nice to include some info about what is being done....

I love it when I get to learn ecology from Australia. Here in the US, we had a guy using RF fields to control and direct ants. It was biophysics from Kansas, in case any Aussie wants to follow up.

For the ant problem use diatomatious earth. It can be sprayed as a powdered cloud.

Nice to hear about this problem. But maybe some solutions should be outlined. It seems like hope was the only thing they mentioned

Paul Stammets has created a pesticide using fungi that target specific species and destroys them all at once. I’d be curious to see how well it would work down under.

In the 70's and 80's Australia did not have this problem. I was working as a Pest Control operator at the time, and ant control during that period was minimal. Chemicals we used in that time, gave excellent cover for many many years, thus ensuring once eradicated they'd be gone. With the increase of Containers, we were faced with a major issue. In the early days when container traffic was just begining, containers were FUMIGATED at the Port before being released for delivery. Fumigated containers required 24 hrs before release. With the massive increase of containers, it became extremely difficult to fumigate every container, then many containers were simply released. All of a sudden we discovered European wood borer, and these ants as well as many other insects we never had before. Chemicals we used remained active for 30 to 40 years if left undisturbed, nowadays such chemicals are banned. Chemicals allowed to buy for ant control these days, are very expensive and useless for long term control. They only last 3 monthss then the ants come back.

Mix 1.5 cups water, 1 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon borax. Pour a small amount into plastic caps and lay them around the infestation. The ants will drink it, take it to the nest to regurgitate, eventually killing the nest. It takes just a few days.

US biologists were able to eradicate them from Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, but of course that's just an atoll .. however, they did a good job in protecting the sea birds.

My mom's house had Big Red Ant Hills so had her buy me a bottle of dish soap every week and poured it right in..took care of them fast!

We do have a lot of these at home here in the philippines. We have a very large yard and whenever we see a part where they stay, we normally pour hot boiling water to the are everyday until they die and the rest leave. So far it has been a success over the years. But for the crabs. I feel sorry for those wonderful creatures. A different solution should be in order to keep the crab species there🥺

First spotted in 1980. More than forty years later and fingers crossed maybe doing nothing will finally work at eradicating them

I wish they talked about how the Yellow Crazy Ants are held in check where they are native.

Big problem, how about solutions?