Invasive species, such as the little fire ants and coconut rhinoceros beetles, have been making headlines recently and for good reason.
But I must respond to repeated comments in the media that Hawaii’s nurseries bear most of the blame for spreading fire ants. It is true that a handful of so-called bad actors are responsible for spreading fire ants, but they do not represent the vast majority of local family run nurseries statewide.
Many of our nurseries are multigenerational and we care about having a safe environment for our families and communities to live in. We invest in the inputs and manhours so we may follow U.S. Department of Agriculture “best practices” protocols to keep our nurseries as pest-free as possible. We do this not only for the well-being of our communities, but for the livelihoods of the nursery owners and their employees. We have employees in my family’s business that have been with us for 20-plus years, and several of them for 30-plus years. The safety and well-being of our flower farm family members and employees is of the highest priority.
Media have also mentioned that fire ants probably hitchhiked to Hawaii on nursery plants from the mainland. This may be true, but fire ants also are known to stow away on a host of other products that are produced and/or stored outdoors, which makes detection a challenge.
Once fire ants are established, there are numerous ways they can spread. They can travel over and below ground. And reproductive males and females (known as alates) develop wings during mating season and can fly long distances when carried by wind. Fertile queens can establish new colonies and those colonies, in turn, can establish satellite colonies. They can survive floods by joining together to form “rafts” and then float to new areas to establish colonies.
Blaming nurseries as the primary cause of the spread, without mentioning the broader scope of how fire ants spread, is not helpful in addressing and solving the issue. Placing blame on nurseries as a whole could have a negative impact on the nurseries that are actively trying to do what’s right for their customers and communities.
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture has also faced criticism on this issue. Criticism, when it results in better practices, is productive. Yet, I would like to suggest that more collaboration and less criticism may yield better results. It has been documented that the department is sorely understaffed and lacks resources to do the arduous groundwork. The number of inspectors has remained the same for the last decade, while the number of parcels arriving into the state has grown dramatically.
The department needs robust and sustained funding to hire and retain a significant number of inspectors to staff our ports, to investigate suspected infested sites, and to eradicate fire ant colonies when possible. With the current tight labor market, the department needs to offer sufficient compensation to attract qualified individuals willing to do the work.
The invasive species that are here, and the new species that are likely to arrive on the islands, require an all-hands-on-deck approach. The volume of imports our islands rely on requires a sustained pest management program into the future. Given the magnitude and complexity of the task ahead, collaboration should be the operative word moving forward.
Eric Tanouye is president of the Hawaii Floriculture and Nursery Association.
