1. LFA = little fire ant Photo © Alex Wild
Little fire ants are a game-changer for Hawaiʻi. Public health, agriculture, native species, pets, and more are at risk . Multiple agencies and NGOs are working to contain or eradicate them where possible, but we need your help in detecting and reporting these ants.
Photo © Alex Wild

2. If you’ve been stung by ants, they were probably Tropical Fire Ants, not LFA
Widespread
Live in sunny, dry, open areas like parks
Nests in the ground have distinct openings
Size: 1/4 inch; about 1/3 the size of a penny
Little Fire Ants
Present on Hawaii island, limited elsewhere
Tend to live in trees and plants in moist, shady areas
Nests have no distinct opening
1/16 inch; as long as a penny is thick
Tropical Fire Ants are common throughout Hawai‘i and are found at many beach parks. Tropical Fire Ants live in the ground and are much larger than little fire ants. Little Fire Ants live in the ground and in trees.
Tropical Fire Ants, Solenopsis geminata: Fire ant is the popular name for ants in the genus Solenopsis. There are over 285 species worldwide.

3. What are Little Fire Ants (LFA)?
All videos are also available at
This 7 minute video is a good summary of the little fire ant problem and why we are so concerned.
Populations reach 244 million ants/hectare = about 11 million ants/5000 sf lot
Little fire ants attracted to peanut butter on half of a chopstick

4. Little Fire Ants in forests, fields & homes…
live in trees, on the ground,
stings are unavoidable
Most ants like open, sunny drier places, but Little Fire Ants are much more of a rainforest species. They like it shady, they like it wet, and they like to live in trees. Most ants nest in the ground and then forage on trees, but Little Fire Ants will look for places to set up their nests in the trees themselves. For an arboreal species, they're not very good at hanging on. Even a small bump to vegetation will result in a rain of these little ants falling onto the person or animal that's bumped the tree.

5. stings are small and painful and create itchy rashes
Little Fire Ants
The Little Fire Ant’s sting is actually very small. A lot of people don't notice that it's an insect that stung them. What they end up with a few minutes after being stung is a rash. The pattern of Little Fire Ant stings is that they disappear for a while and then come back. Even after three or four days, on day three it can be just as itchy as it was on day one.
stings are small and painful and create itchy rashes

6. Eye stings result in clouded cornea and blindness in animals
Little Fire Ants sting animals in their eyes which can result in clouding of the eyes’ corneas and blindness. They also sting exposed skin on animals, resulting in rashes and sores.
Eye stings result in clouded cornea and blindness in animals

7. Local and export agriculture and our Hawaii’s hopes for food security are at risk because of the Little Fire Ant.
In addition to stinging agricultural workers, Little Fire Ants can weaken plants by farming insects like aphids and mealy bugs. Those insects suck plant sap and secrete a sugary substance that the ants use as a source of energy. The ants then have a huge source of energy that allows them expand and grow and farm yet more mealy bugs and scale insects which make the plants sicker and sicker. These declines in plant health can result in substantial crop losses.
Little Fire Ants weaken plants by farming insects like aphids and mealy bugs

8. Current LFA Infestation
By 2011 ,they had spread to Kona and are now established in many sites.
Current LFA Infestation

9. LFA colony in macadamia nut shell
1999—1 site)
2013—10+ sites,
2014—1 site 3-10 yrs old?
2009—1 site eradicated,
2013—1 site
2014—3 sites
2013—4+ sites
LFA colonies
are moving in:
2013
Plants
Cut flowers & ti leaves
Fruit & produce
Planting materials like hapu`u, greenwaste
Non-ag products--cinder
1999
Movement of entire colonies (queen/s, workers, larvae), like this one found in half a macadamia nut shell, are the ONLY way that LFA can spread from island to island. Queens have wings, but do not have a “nuptial flight” after mating to take off to form a new colony. Instead, she walks a few feet (the single genetic strain of this species seems to allow them to nest close together in one “supercolony”, without competition that they might normally have in their home range). Therefore, the natural spread of this species is not more than 60 ft. per year.
From infested areas—East Hawaiʻi (maybe Oahu?)
LFA colony in macadamia nut shell

10. Ants: the nearly perfect beast
Ants have been around for at least 130 million years
Ants found in 96 million year old amber look pretty much the same as today’s ants; they already had a complex social structure
There are tens of thousands of species of ants in the world
By contrast, the first primitive humans appeared about 100,000 years ago.
In order to control ant populations, we must understand them

11. How the Queen Gets her Meals
Foraging worker
(picks up carbs
& lipids, feeds
to workers)
Nurse workers
larvae
Other workers
carbohydrates
(sugar food)
Queen
attendants
Lipids
(fatty food)
Other worker
QUEEN
Proteins
(animal-based food)
Queen
attendants
Ants need sugars, lipids and proteins for the colony to function. Foraging workers pick up sugars, fats & proteins, which are fed to colony workers like nurse workers (that care for the larval ants), other workers that keep the colony clean and attend to the queen’s attendants). The queen attendants feed the queen. So the queen has food tasters. Therefore, any ant pesticide that we use must be: 1) attractive—it has to have these three ingredients, and 2) slow acting. If the worker dies after eating some of it, it will not get passed along to the other workers and the queen. If we kill the workers, the queen just produces more workers. This is why using spray pesticides like Raid just doesn’t work. To kill the colony, we must kill the queen ant. Without the queen, the colony cannot reproduce and it dies.
Foraging worker
(picks up proteins,
feeds to nurse
workers)
4th instar
larvae
Nurse worker

12. But how can we hope to win?
The queen is the answer—without a queen, the colony dies
We need to use the right ant “baits”—attractive food items with slow-acting insecticide or insect growth regulator—near colonies, foraging workers will unknowingly help us feed it to the queen
But we can’t kill them if we can’t find them…we need everyone’s help
The ant baits being used are over-the-counter products like Amdro, Probait, Siesta, Esteem, etc. And a newly-developed and registered gel formulation called Tango to shoot into trees. They work great, as long as the entire area is treated every 6 weeks for 1 year, with surveys to detect any areas missed.

13. 3 minute video on how to test for LFA:
How can Citizen Scientists help? Test your yard, park, neighborhood for little fire ants.
3 minute video on how to test for LFA:
(available online: or at )
How to test for Little Fire Ants: Take a chopstick and thinly coat it with peanut butter on one end and lay it in the areas where you think you might have Little Fire Ants. You also should test new plants brought onto the property. It could be a banana tree or palm tree you've already planted. If there are Little Fire Ants on or near the area tested, within forty five minutes the sticks will have ants on them. They like moisture. Avoid testing during the hottest time of the day. There are quite a few different stinging ants on the islands; a positive identification is possible only with a microscope. If you think you have Little Fire Ants, put the stick with the ants in a plastic bag, freeze it to kill the ants, and send it to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture or contact your local Invasive Species Committee so they can make a positive ID. It's really not difficult at all!

14. Spot the Ant, Stop the Ant: Testing for LFA
You need 1 or 2 zip top bags and chopsticks (or craft sticks) for every address where surveys are conducted.
Plan survey for 1 hour in morning or evening (do not survey when raining)
Smear a tiny amount of peanut butter on one end of each chopstick. Scrape off almost all of the peanut butter back into the container. (use mayonnaise if you are allergic). More is NOT better, it’s just messier
Place in shady, moist areas, in and around plants, pet food sites, garbage cans, etc.
How to test for Little Fire Ants: Take a chopstick and thinly coat it with peanut butter on one end and lay it in the areas where you think you might have Little Fire Ants. You also should test new plants brought onto the property. It could be a banana tree or palm tree you've already planted. If there are Little Fire Ants on or near the area tested, within forty five minutes the sticks will have ants on them. They like moisture. Avoid testing during the hottest time of the day. There are quite a few different stinging ants on the islands; a positive identification is possible only with a microscope. If you think you have Little Fire Ants, put the stick with the ants in a plastic bag, freeze it to kill the ants, and send it to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture or contact your local Invasive Species Committee so they can make a positive ID. It's really not difficult at all!

15. LFA Survey
As you place your chopsticks, draw an easy diagram of your survey site (yard, park or school), OR, take GPS points, OR, if surveying public roadsides, record addresses where samples are taken.
Leave sticks out for 45 min-1 hour (not longer!)
Label your zip top bag with your name and address using permanent marker
Check each chopstick for ants—if there are ants, carefully pick up the chopstick and place it into a zip top bag, then seal it
Label each bag with the address of the survey and your contact information

16. LFA Survey (continued)
Place the bags in the freezer overnight to kill the ants before transporting them! Please make sure all bags are labeled with the survey address and a contact number.
Take your samples to the HI Department of Agriculture or Invasive Species Committee office on your island:
Kauaʻi: HDOA 4398A Pua Loke St; KISC:
Oahu: HDOA 1428 S. King St.; OISC:
Maui: HDOA 635 Mua St.;
Molokaʻi: MoMISC 23 Pueo Pl,
Big Island: HDOA/Hawaiʻi Ant Lab 16 E. Lanikaula St.; BIISC
You can also contact the Invasive Species Committees if you would like help with this presentation, or with designing a survey or project tailored for your group. Mahalo!

17. Like us on Facebook, post to our Instagram page. Mahalo!