These tiny, dangerous invaders show no sign of leaving

VIRGINIA BEACH

David White got a surprise first hand look at fire ants Thursday morning.

White supervises a landscaping crew that was cutting and edging grass at Charlestown Athletic Park, which was closed last week because of fire ant infestation. He was walking near a tree, ringed with piled mulch, and he saw a pen on the ground and kicked it. He didn't know the pen was on top of an ant mound.

"They got on my shoes right away," White said. "I looked down, and they were there. It was really quick."

The Virginia Department of Agriculture is battling fire ants in several parts of South Hampton Roads, said Gina Goodwyn, the department's regional supervisor. The ants have become more and more commonplace, she said, because they are coming into the area as stowaways in mulch, shrubs and trees brought from states such as North Carolina, Florida and Texas.

Suspected fire ant mounds were discovered at Campostella Elementary School in Norfolk last week. The school canceled outdoor activities until agriculture department workers could inspect them on

Monday, said Karen Tanner, public relations coordinator with Norfolk Public Schools.

As White found out, a fire ant mound should not be messed with. Within a few seconds of having their home disturbed, fire ants swarm whatever is nearby and begin biting, an attack that makes the victim's skin feel like it's on fire.

They chomp down to get a grip, then inject a toxin. The venom can kill small animals but is not deadly to the majority of humans. Often, white pustules develop and can become infected, turning into scars if scratched, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

For a small percentage of people, however, the sting can be fatal. Two years ago this month, Bradley Johnson was working at a house in the southern part of Virginia Beach when attacked by the ants. Johnson had an immediate allergic reaction, the epinephrine that emergency workers gave him did not work, and he died.

Johnson's wife, Pamela, became alarmed last week when she heard of the park closure and noticed suspicious mounds near her Ocean View home. An expert with the Department of Agriculture came out, inspected the ant homes and determined they were not fire ants. Johnson is not taking any chances, though: She made an appointment to have her son tested to find out if he is allergic to fire ants like her husband was.

"From two years ago to now," she said, "it seems like every time you turn around they are spreading from here to here to here."

Experts call them RIFAs, for red imported fire ants, to distinguish them from fire ants that can be native to hot, Southern states. Their arrival in the United States has been traced to the 1920s, when ships using dirt as ballast brought them from Brazil to Mobile, Ala. Since then, they have spread throughout the South, and eliminating them takes persistence.

A fire ant colony is a sophisticated operation, all channeled to allow the queen ant to reproduce. Disturb a mound, and the workers race to repel the intruder while carting the queen to a safe location.

"The queen will not be visible, she will not be on top of the mound," Goodwyn said. "She probably will not be close to the mound."

To eliminate a colony, Goodwyn said, it is first treated with granular bait, which the worker ants are supposed to carry to the queen. If the queen dies, the colony disappears. But all of the ants are not immediately killed. A few weeks later, the mound must be treated with a pesticide to attack those that remain.

That explains why White was swarmed by fire ants last week, even though the state first treated the ant mounds at the park a month ago. Little blue flags on sticks marked each treated mound.

Within inches of a mound on Thursday, ants with auburn-colored torsos scurried in and out of tunnels at the base. The mound didn't look dangerous, just a raised lump of dirt with grass growing out of the top. Based on his weekly grass cutting at the park, White said, the ants involved in its invasion don't seem to be retreating.

"It's crazy," he said, "because every time we cut this, it's like new spots pop up."

Lon Wagner, (757) 446-2341, lon.wagner@pilotonline.com