DOVER, Del.– The Delaware Department of Agriculture is alerting local businesses and purchasers of tropical nursery stock of the recent detection of fire ants in a shipment of palm trees imported from Florida.
The red imported fire ants were detected during a routine check at a Sussex County business by the DDA’s Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey team. A treatment program was immediately initiated to eliminate the fire ants.
"Red imported fire ants are not known to be established in Delaware. We intend to keep it that way, because they are a threat to human health and the agriculture industry," DDA Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey Coordinator Stephen Hauss said.
Red imported fire ants are small (3-6 millimeters long), red to reddish brown ants. Mounds can be 18 inches high and three feet across, and have no visible external opening, unlike ant hills. Worker ants can sting repeatedly, and will attack anything that disturbs their mounds or food sources. Stings are very painful, and venom from a fire ant attack can cause a variety of symptoms in humans and animals, according to the DAA.
A federal quarantine is in place for fire ants in part or all of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Puerto Rico, covering more than 367 million acres. The U.S. Department of Agriculture only allows shipments of nursery stock from quarantined states with an inspection certificate.
According to the DAA, anyone who travels in those states should not bring plants or plant material back into Delaware that has not been properly inspected. Plants should be accompanied by a state inspection certificate.
Anyone finding a suspicious ant should call DDA’s Plant Industries Section at 302-698-4500 or 800-282-8685 (toll-free for Delaware only).
