Test To Target Little Fire Ants Saturday

The troops are assembling for a “Stop Little Fire Ants” campaign Saturday in Waimanalo, when residents and volunteers have been asked to join in a mass test for detecting the tiny invasive creatures.

Waimanalo farmer Tom Grande and the LFA (Little Fire Ant) Outreach Group conducted volunteer survey training to prepare for it, and free survey kits were to be distributed at a community meeting Oct. 15.

“We ask our neighbors in other communities, particularly those in wet areas, to join us in testing for these threatening ants,” Grande wrote in a Oct. 5 Star-Advertiser column. His Kakalina Farm sells fruit and cut flowers to restaurants and markets. “We have a chance to save Oahu for future generations.”

The Nov. 1 survey will monitor roadsides near the existing infestation, which was treated Sept. 17. Trained volunteers can bring their ant samples to UH Waimanalo Research Station 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day for identification. Survey teams last spring found the LFAs thriving on four acres of state land and in mulch areas outside nurseries around Kumuhau and Mahailua streets.

For details on the campaign, visit lfahawaii.org, call the state Department of Agriculture pest hotline at 643-7378 or Oahu Invasive Species Committee at 266-7994.