Question: I think I got bitten by a fire ant at Ala Moana beach park. Is there someone I can notify?
Answer: Yes, but to be clear, you’ll be reporting tropical fire ants, not little fire ants — tropical fire ants are well established on Oahu and considered less of a threat than little fire ants, although the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation takes them seriously, too.
“Unfortunately, these tropical fire ants are a continuous problem at Ala Moana and other city park locations. DPR uses an ant bait to treat park grounds against these ants and eradicate the nests, using two different methods of application depending on the severity of the ant population. We either apply the bait to a large area during park closure hours, or treat a specific area based on complaints or staff observations,” Nate Serota, a spokesperson for the department, said in an email.
Anyone in Ala Moana Regional Park who has been bitten or seen these ants should report the location of the nest to DPR staff immediately by calling 808-768-4616, emailing dprwestdistrict@honolulu.gov or flagging down park staff to let them know, Serota said. For other park locations, people can call 808-768-3001, email parks@honolulu.gov, “or if they have the site-specific contact information for that park they can alert staff in this manner,” he said.
The reader who submitted this question said he was bitten while sitting in the grass near the Magic Island lagoon, and provided location coordinates from Google maps. We shared the information with Serota, who confirmed the park has tropical fire ants, not little fire ants. DPR is working with the state Department of Agriculture and Department of Land and Natural Resources to continue to monitor the species observed at Ala Moana and other city parks, he said.
“Ala Moana staff are also working on signage near the picnic areas alerting park users about the presence of these ants. While their bite is not fatal, it can certainly be alarming and painful, so we want to locate their nests and exterminate them as soon as possible. The ants tend to be more active after rainfall or irrigation saturates the grounds,” Serota said.
At an eighth- to a quarter-inch long, a tropical fire ant is about three times the size of a little fire ant and moves more quickly. Tropical fire ants, documented in Hawaii since the 1880s, prefer sunny, dry areas, including beach parks. They live in holes in the ground or nest in the soil, creating very slight, spread-out mounds, according to the Hawaii Invasive Species Council. Colonies compete for resources, which reduces density, and these ants are relatively easy to kill with off-the-shelf granular ant baits. “Tropical fire ant stings will cause irritation” but should not cause blisters that last for days, the HISC website says.
By contrast, the little fire ant is a rainforest species that lives in trees and on the ground, cooperating to form a network of supercolonies that rain down on unsuspecting people and animals, inflicting painful stings that cause long-lasting welts. “In Hawai‘i, an infestation of little fire ants is harmful to people and pets, and catastrophic for agriculture and the environment,” according to stoptheant.org, the website of a multiagency program devoted to deterring the LFA, which was first detected in Hawaii in 1999.
The website lists places on Oahu (and other islands) where little fire ants have been found; Ala Moana Regional Park is not among them.
Any suspected infestation of little fire ants should be reported to the state, and property owners should survey their properties at least once a year to check for the pests. Find detailed instructions on the website.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
