All-hands-on-deck effort to find little fire ants in Nahiku | News, Sports, Jobs

July 23, 2024

A team from MISC prepares for their day of climbing through the jungles of lower Nahiku in search of little fire ants. The 2022 survey indicated the ants had been eliminated and crews are hoping for a repeat during surveys this month. — Photo courtesy Brooke Mahnken / MISC

“We want to find them if they’re here,” said Brooke Mahnken, little fire ant coordinator with the Maui Invasive Species Committee. “But we also hope we don’t.”

For three weeks in October, a team of 30-plus from the Maui Invasive Species Committee and Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project will be climbing over, under and through 175 acres of dense brush and tangled vines in the rainforest of Nahiku, combing the forest for an insect the size of a poppy seed. They’re searching for the little fire ant, tiny critters with a painful sting.

Considered one of the world’s worst invasive species, the little fire ant is a priority pest for MISC. They are found in only a few places on Maui; the county and State of Hawaii are funding efforts to eliminate them. Though tiny, these ants can blanket the rainforest, living in the leaf litter; they are just as comfortable making their homes in bushes or trees. When they land on unsuspecting passersby, their sting leaves itchy red welts lasting for days. They injure pets’ eyes, which can cause blindness, and they can harm sea turtles and ground-nesting seabirds. Little fire ants impact local agriculture and affect people’s ability to enjoy time outside.

When a MISC crew discovered the Nahiku infestation in 2014, the community and MISC was alarmed. It was the largest known little fire ant infestation outside of Hawaii island. The vegetation — a maze of hau, clidemia and ink berry — is ideal for the ants, less so for anyone trying to walk through. Despite the challenges, MISC recognized the need for action.

“If we couldn’t stop it, we knew that LFA would spread throughout the East side and eventually to all of Maui,” said Mahnken.

To attract little fire ants (if present), crews leave a peanut-butter-baited vial in a place likely to host ants. Each vial is linked to a GPS point so if ants are found, the exact location will be known. — Photo courtesy Brooke Mahnken / MISC

Initially, crews treated near homes and near where people might accidentally spread ants. Over the next five years, the Hilo-based Hawaii Ant Lab and MISC researched, tested and refined options for using a helicopter to treat the ants. Then they sought the required authorization from the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. After three years of effort, applying ant treatments every six weeks, the ants were nearly impossible to find. A crew surveyed in September of 2022 and little fire ants were nowhere to be found.

Crews are once again out for a full-site survey, referring to the all-hands-on-deck effort as the “Nahiku Blitz.” They are trained to find, and hoping not to.

At times painstaking, each surveyor visits a predetermined set of plots. They drop a plastic vial with a smudge of peanut butter — a favorite food for little fire ants — then retrace their steps to retrieve the vial hours later. Each vial has its own bar code label that helps the team map the location of any little fire ants found. All ant samples collected will be frozen, identified and counted.

Why spend so much time searching for something you hope you won’t find?

“The last ones found will be the hardest — and most expensive — to remove,” explained Mahnken.

The site of the Nahiku little fire ant infestation, the largest outside of Hawaii island, is dense in vegetation and rainy, ideal for little fire ants but challenging for people to control. — Photo courtesy Brooke Mahnken / MISC

The last ones are also the most important to find if the goal is eradication. The economics justify the effort.

A 2015 paper by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization compared strategies for addressing little fire ants over a 35-year time frame; the least-cost scenario is early detection and eradication. This approach is working, both in Nahiku and elsewhere on Maui. Of the 19 little fire ant populations found since 2009, seven have been eliminated and five more are in a monitoring stage, meaning no ants were found during recent surveys, but crews continue to visit to be sure the ants are gone. In contrast to Nahiku, most monitoring sites take less than a day to survey.

You can help with early detection. October is “Stop the Ant Month” in Hawaii, a statewide multiagency effort encouraging people to collect and submit ants from their yards. These ant samples help find little fire ant populations before they become widespread. On Maui, public reports of stinging ants have led to the majority of detections — 13 of the 19 populations.

To collect and submit a sample of ants, all you need is a little peanut butter. You can find instructions to collect your own (or request a collection kit) at www.stoptheant.org.

* Lissa Strohecker is the public relations and education specialist for the Maui Invasive Species Committee. She holds a biological sciences degree from Montana State University. Kia’i Moku, “Guarding the Island,” is prepared by the Maui Invasive Species Committee to provide information on protecting the island from invasive plants and animals that can threaten the island’s environment, economy and quality of life.

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