Fire ants could reach Sydney’s outskirts by 2035 and cost $1.2 billion


There are signs a destructive invasive species of red fire ants in southeast Queensland are on the march to NSW, bringing with them the potential to cause more than $1 billion of damage to crops, infrastructure and homes each year.

A cost-benefit analysis, commissioned by a steering committee from Central Queensland University, managing the outbreak of red fire ants, concluded that the tiny insects could cause “cascading negative impacts on future generations” if they are not contained and eradicated.

Yet, despite the Australian government investing $400 million on an eradication program, the ants – which were first detected in Brisbane in 2001 – have been found in at least 10 locations across the Gold Coast, sparking fears the pests are on the march to NSW.

Economists at Central Queensland University modelled the economic impacts of the spread of the fire ants if they progressed at a rate of 5km a year, with a “maximum” spread of 48km a year.

With the best case scenario – if the ants only spread at 5km a year – the ants will reach high-value farmland in the Darling Downs in southern Queensland by 2035, The Guardian reports.

Worst case, the pests will reach the Liverpool Plains and northern outskirts of Sydney by 2035.

The annual costs to the economy for a 5km a year invasion was about $890 million, increasing significantly year on year. And if they made it to Sydney – as estimated in the 48km mapping – the costs would blow out to $1.2 billion a year.

Most of that cost would be borne by households having to increase spending on pesticides, veterinary bills, and electrical faults caused by the ants.

The report concluded that eradication yielded “much higher returns”, economically, than suppression because the latter would still lead to “large impacts … especially on households and agriculture”.

Reece Pianta from the Invasive Species Council, told The Guardian the report supported calls for more investment in eradication, saying the cost of action is “far cheaper than the cost of living with fire ants”.

“Fire ants are just a few kilometres from the NSW border and, when they break out, they can quickly spread everywhere in Australia,” he said.

He said the damage reported was “becoming a reality” in southern Queensland, closing public parks, sports grounds, schools, construction sites, and natural habitat.

In March, the red fire ant species was found in the tourism hotspot Minjerribah – otherwise known as North Stradbroke Island – 30 kilometres southeast of the centre of Brisbane and outside the National Fire Ant Eradication Program’s biosecurity zone, the Courier Mailreports.

Then, in early May, two fire ant nests were found and treated in a Gold Coast primary school, in what councillors warned was a terrifying sign of their rapid migration and a realisation of “our worst fears”.

Councillors said the situation was a frightening development as only three years ago, fire ants were not predicted to reach the Gold Coast suburb of Burleigh until 2024. They reached Nerang, 10km out of the CBD, only last year.

Less than two weeks later, the Bulletin found the spread was worse than initially reported. The Gold Coast City Council confirmed it found nests across at least 10 locations in the city – and some sports field were infested with more than 50.

Councillors backed a recommendation the CEO write to government bureaucrats seeking better updates on ant infestations on state land, calling on more proactive communication from the government and Biosecurity Queensland.

The National Fire Ant Eradication Program says fire ant biosecurity zones are one of the key measures currently in place in parts of southeast Queensland to help prevent the human-assisted movement of materials which can carry fire ants.

A spokesman for the National Fire Ant Eradication Program told the Courier Mail in March that moving “just one fire ant queen to a new area, accidentally or otherwise, could lead to the infestation of an entire community”.

Mr Pianta, from the Invasive Species Council, told The Guardian if urgent efforts were not made to eradicate the ants, Australia faces a fire ant future like the United States – where at least 85 people have been killed and billions of dollars lost due to their damage. 

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