Fire Ants in Brissie ! aahhhh
 

Myself and my partner (and kids) have been set on going to Brissie and are about 6 weeks into our wait for the visa's when about 1hr ago I came across this web site below

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fireants/ :scared: :scared:

I had just finished convincing Jenny that spiders and flies arn't really that bad, which alone has taken me several weeks when she peared over my shoulder and saw the picture of the ant bites and headline "infestions", ....... shit, its hard work, how do I argue that ants are too small to worry about ??.. suppose she could always stamp on them and run.


Another interesting fact I just discovered;

"When there's a bank holiday weekend in NSW, there is a policy of double de-merit points for things like speeding or not wearing seatbelts. If on a double de-merit weekend you're caught with people in the car not wearing seatbelts, the driver loses three points per person, and the total is then doubled. So two people without seatbelts on a long weekend equals (for the driver) 3*2*2 = 12 points. Your licence gone in one go." Ouch!

funny coincidence this, i watched a prog on discovery about fire ants on the weekend, fascinating stuff.

dont know if i would squish them under foot though, they are said to have a nasty sting/bite.

from the pictures, a couple of bites will give you a right pussy blotch of skin, just like being that teenager all over again, just need to be shot !

Hi welshboybilly,
I watched that program as well, called "The ant that ate america"

they didn't look nice. I believe that thy can kill if enough bite you and it hurts!! (They don't call them fire ants because they like to be warm.)

They were originally south American, but took hold in the use.
They have no natural preditos so they run rampant.

Now we can add ants to the list of things that are out to get us.;)

Bye
Markeh

Re: Fire Ants in Brissie ! aahhhh
 

They were discovered a couple of years back at fishermans island (port of Brisbane). They think they came in on one of the ships.
Now and again you see the odd story of someone's discovered fire ants in their garden.
I've never seen them, nor know of anyone that has had them. The chances of you seeing them is remote, or unlucky.

They have also been spread by people buying plants in boot sales that have had the ants in them, also transportation of soil.. hence spreading the ants to their own garden/location.

The dpi here takes them pretty seriously, if you discover them they will come out and poison the ant nests.
They are not in epidemic levels here yet, the government is trying to eradicate them completely before they get out of control.. don't know if they are winning the battle.


You should be more worried about discovering termites in your house than ants. The chances of you having fire ants in your garden is remote.. the chances of having termites is almost one in three in Brisbane (or one in four..depending on the body these figures alter, I've heard both.. one in three and one in four) .

We were in a rental a few years back that had termites in the window frames, we didn't know until they chewed through the frames .. horrible things! Little holes appeared in the frames .. and you could actually hear the noise. We informed the estate agent.. but they hummed and 'arred" .. couldn't get a pest controller until later in the week, couldn't be bothered more likely... the house had just been sold (we were moving out the next week) . Then the night after.. the winged ones burst out... argggg, absolutely disgusting things.. the soldier ones look a bit like little grubs with a beak. I've actually got it on film somewhere where they are flying around , with me holding a vacuum cleaner in the air trying to suck them all up. I should capture a frame off it when I have the time and post a pic of it..


cheers

P.S regarding termite inspections this house had one prior to being sold (the couple who bought it had it inspected). The inspector did not discover them.. and yet a few weeks after they were bursting out of the frames. This was after the couple had signed contracts and bought the house... don't know if they pulled out of the sale, or were landed with a termite riddled house.. so watch out when you are buying and pay for a good inspection.

Ceri!!!!!!!!!! Now I will be having nightmares, soldier like grubs breaking out of the walls with beaks, :scared:

My "pest of the week" is totally utterly disgusting. After yesterdays heavy rain, I noticed thes black snake like heads popping out of the grass!! Wrigling and squirming these enormous worms, about 60 cm long and wide as a snake are coming out of the grass. There all veins and you can see the skeleton like coils in them, totally disgusting, sort of like a lawn eel.

Husband reckons they are just harmless giant worms that come out for air when it rains.

Dotty they sound as if they could also be a type of "blind snakes" which is a type of lizard.. looks very much like a snake. We had a few in the compost heap when we were clearing it up.. they quickly buried into the lawn before we could grab them.

I have a pic of one (managed to grab one .. well hold it with a stick) .. I'll get it tonight, it's on my other computer.

My ones were not transparent though.. maybe a different type of species.


I've also got a big grub photo..I need identifying. It looks like a wijuti grub but it was in the compost heap... I'd love to know what is.. as we kept finding a few of these.

"blind snakes" sound nasty indeed:D


On a different topic did you see our old cellmate Pauline is out??
I'm taking bets on how much compo she goes for :rolleyes:

yes, she's gone all demure and gentle now ..lol.. I'm putting bets on she'll be fighting for prisoners rights for women as she keeps talking about "the girls" (Hi pauline!! lol) back inside and how some of them are innocent.

I'm also betting you're looking at the future premier to be.. maybe not now, but in years to come. I see beatie is worried

This has done her far more good than damage. Her ratings have soared.

As said elsewhere you are unlikely to ever come across Fire Ants, they just aren't that widespread and there is a big eradication program, they are finding less and less nests now. They are now at the point of telling people not to be complacent and keep a look out for them.

Big black ants on the other hand are everywhere and give a nasty nip, though not as bad as say a wasp sting