Drones hit the skies in must-win fire ant war

The drones are capable of spreading fire ant bait over up to 200 hectares a day.

Drones that can deliver poisonous bait over large areas have joined Australia’s high-stakes battle to eradicate fire ants.

The country has an enormous amount to lose if the hyper-aggressive invader becomes entrenched.

Economic losses have been estimated at $2 billion each and every year if fire ants spread from the heart of the current infestation in southeast Queensland.

Australians have also been warned their way of life could change forever if swarming, stinging fire ants becoming commonplace in backyards, at sports grounds, parks and campgrounds.

State, territory and federal governments are throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at efforts to eradicate the pest 2032 and on Friday said drones were the latest weapon in the must-win war.

They’re capable of spreading small, granular bait over up to 200 hectares a day, sitting somewhere between the capabilities of helicopters and ground crews.

Ashley Bacon is the executive director for the National Fire Ant Eradication Program and says the drones will also save money, reduce risks for staff and keep farmers happier.

“It lays a foundation for a scalable and sustainable solution that can be integrated into our broader treatment efforts,” he says.

“We have witnessed exciting results during testing, noticing that the drones reduce the chance of unsettling livestock like helicopters sometimes do.”

The eradication effort focused on southeast Queensland has been under intense scrutiny in recent months after fire ants were detected for the first time south of the border, in NSW.

Those infestations have been stamped out but anxiety remains high after the first detection in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia’s largest and most complex river system.

The find was reported on April 16 at Swartz Barracks at Oakey, west of Brisbane, outside the surveillance and eradication treatment area.

Experts have long feared what could happen if fire ants enter the basin’s waterways because they can form floating rafts with their bodies and harness river flows to invade new areas.

Just how they got to Oakey remains under investigation.

But authorities are looking at whether they arrived with high-risk organic material such as turf, mulch, soil and gravel.

Mr Bacon says 78 nests have been treated. He says reports of up to 110 nests can be explained by remnant ants fleeing and trying to set up new nests before they die.

He says the nests are clustered close together and so far there’s nothing to suggests the ants have spread beyond that one one property.

The presence of a reproductive brood suggests the infestation has been there for longer than six months.

“Preliminary (advice) is that there is a connection to the Brisbane infestation, so it’s not a new infestation.”

He says the defence department is engaging with the eradication program.