Invasive species of ants will cost Australians more than $22bn if left to run rampant
now in Australia a new report is due to be handed down into the spread and
threat of one of the world's most invasive species fire ants the ants are
thought to have entered the country in shipping containers from South America
about two decades ago they pose a threat to people and livestock the exparts says that
ants are small insects and the red imported fire
an originates in South America and itis a species that's been spread around
the world in a variety of different waysbut particularly can be found in soil
for instance it's imported in one way oranother and um these quite tiny ants can
form quite large colonies and they are omnivores that is they eat a lot of
different things and um particularly they will pray on for example um
seabirds or tur LS which are of particular concern in some regions but
also a whole variety of other insects sothey can really change the communities
of species that might be in a particular area but they also make changes to the
soil ecosystems too and they have a very painful sting um so humans can also be
affected and in Australian's terms they
cost a lot of money I'm reading 22 billion by the 2040s in trying to combat them yes that's right right so it's
really important with any of these
so-called invas species that have been that are species been moved from one
part of the world to another by human activities and then they go on to have
some kind of impact the most important thing to do is to prevent their arrival
in the first place but once they do arrive management is really expensive
but actually the cost of inaction is even greater so what are the options
that are available to tackle them and Australia obviously spending a lot of
money on it but how can they they seem so small and so innocent and you know
but in fact they're causing all this Devastation so one of the advantages is
that because they have Nest so it it means that that you can control quite a
large number of them so there are a v ariety of different treatment options
some of the treatments involve sterilizing the queen for instance which
essentially then kills the colony but there can be other ways in which they
can be controlled through sort of baiting so the ants take back these
toxic baits to the nest but I think it's really important that people are aware
of these threats to biodiversity these invasive alien species and they play
important part in terms of surveillanceand monitoring keeping a lookout and um
reporting any sightings that they have as quickly as possible because any
action if it can take place as quickly as possible it's going to be more
effective than if the insects are left to um spread and to establish and
briefly does global warming contribute to this are they more likely to spread
because of the warming
climate certainly particularly insects they um will benefit many of them will
benefit from a warming climate and for example in the UK as the temperatures
are warming we're expecting more of these insects could Thrive Within These
in the UK where previously they would not have been able to um flourish
because the conditions just wouldn't have been right they could also change
their behavior a little bit when the climate changes so for example drought
conditions can make them go more deep
into the soil and make them more
difficult to control that interaction
with climate change is really important
okay Helen Roy ologist at the UK Center
for Ecology and hydrology
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