As a rule, ants are one of those minor ‘nuisances’ that grey nomads cope with as they travel Australia … but the ant problem in one Western Australian Goldfields town has moved well beyond the nuisance level.
Laverton, nearly 1,000 kilometres north-east of Perth is being terrorised by a super colony of voracious Singapore ants. The town’s caravan park, along with the police station, are among the premises that have been infested by the ants which eat through wiring, meter boxes, irrigation pipes and plastic.
Laverton Caravan Park manager Sandy, who did not want her last name printed, told Perth Now News that the ants were ‘horrible little things’ that had caused massive damage at the park and in homes.
“They’re everywhere. They’re just shocking. It’s like a swarm. It’s horrid,” she said. “They first turned up three months ago and now they’re just in plague proportions.“If you leave any tucker out, they turn up in droves. They’re also in our electrical system.”
Australia’s top ant expert, Dr Ben Hoffmann from the CSIRO Tropical Ecosystem Research Centre, said eradicating the ant super colonies from Laverton would now be “damn near impossible”.
“It’s an incredibly tricky ant to deal with. It’s a mongrel ant,” he said. “Singapore ants have so many queens within each colony… they create super-colonies where all the individual colonies merge and act as one giant super-colony.”
Dr Hoffmann told Perth Now that Laverton would never be free of Singapore ants unless the entire town, including every house and garden, was sprayed simultaneously with “a lot of resources and a very concerted effort”.
Singapore ants originated in North Africa and have been widespread in Australia for more than 100 years. Perth Now says the tiny, honey-coloured ants – which have the scientific name Monomorium destructor and nest in buildings, cracks, crevices, wall cavities, behind skirting and under paths – are ‘highly destructive’.
Shire vice president Rob Wedge, whose home has been invaded, described the species as “quite a nasty little ant” which “got into cars, motorbikes, light fittings, meter boxes… you name it”.
“They nest in there and they cause a lot of electric shorts,” he said. “They bite or sting… and you do wake up with a lot of welts.”
Although the CSIRO says spraying is unlikely to save Laverton, its scientists are researching how pathogens could be introduced to control invasive ants.
What is the worst ant problem you have faced while on the road? Will Laverton still feature on your Big Lap itinerary despite the ant problem? Comment below.
Well that is One place that is Definitely getting a very wide berth from me…
Juergen
Laverton is certainly not on my bucket list of places. Hmmm, the name Singapore ants? Yet they originated in North Africa? Do we know how their name originated?
Won’t take long to spread around with travellers coming and going but we won’t be one of them also take a wide berth.
I am currently at a Karumba caravan park. We are also currently infested with these critters. They have got into electrical systems, caused faults in cars etc. Not nice when your $100,000 car will not start & you need a new engine computer and you are 500 KM from a place of repair. They have caused $100’s of food wastage as they just eat their way into through various plastic & silver foil food packaging.
Caravan park operators do not seem to care and see it as the individual caravaner’s problem. Everyone is using all sorts of sprays, powders & dusts which is probably making the area quite toxic but still does not kill these very resilient ants.
I believe Shire councils & caravan park operators should take the responsibility for the eradication from caravan parks & prevent the spread of these ants it appears that the ants seem to colonize the caravans quite possibly with their own queen.
Avoid sites & places where these ants occur at all cost.