Concerns rise over possible spread of red fire ants

Quarantine officials spray pesticides to kill red fire ants that were found in a warehouse in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, Monday./ Yonhap

By Jung Hae-myoung

Quarantine authorities are on alert against the possible spread of foreign red fire ants to inland regions after a swam of the insects was found in a warehouse in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, while they had been found at ports in most previous cases.

They have yet to confirm if there was a “queen ant,” which lays up to 1,500 eggs a day, in the swarm, and whether it was exterminated.

They received a report at 10:30 a.m. Monday that red fire ants were found in mounds in a container box at an Ansan warehouse of a steam vacuum cleaner manufacturing company.

The container contained vacuum cleaners which the company made in China through original equipment manufacturing.

The Ansan city government examined the site with the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency and the Ministry of Environment and confirmed there were 5,900 ants.

Quarantine officers sprayed pesticides near the container to prevent the spread of the insects and fumigated the container.

The container departed Guangdong, Sept. 8, and arrived at Incheon Port, Sept. 11. It was kept at the port for almost a month before being moved to the warehouse in Ansan Monday morning. Workers who were unloading cargo found the ants.

“We think the chance is low that they traveled to other areas because most of them were found in the container within several hours after the container was moved to the warehouse,” a city government official said. “But we'll decide whether to take additional disinfecting measures after discussing the problem with experts.”

This was the eighth occasion that red fire ants have been found in Korea since they were first discovered in September last year. The last case was this September when a mound of red fire ants, with a queen, was found at a construction site in Daegu.

Red fire ants have a level of venom similar to bee stings. This is not detrimental to healthy people, but can be critical to some of the elderly and those with weak immune systems who are vulnerable to infections.