Talk Story with an Advertiser: Fire Ants Hawaii

Little Fire Ants are the biggest threat our island has ever encountered. The LFA are attacking all of the native species of insects. They are harming our native birds at an alarming rate, even the honu (sea turtle) can’t escape the impact. Where does this stop? Fire Ants Hawaii owners say it stops with them. They have an effective means of controlling the LFA that is not harmful to humans or pets when applied properly. It is safe to use on edible plants, and also for our environment, when used in the correct application.

It is never too soon to survey your property, even if you don’t believe that you have Little Fire Ants. If you are lucky enough to be one of the rare people that have not become victim to these invasive insects, you can protect your property from invasion before it is too late.

Susanne Baca, co-owner, explains how she and her business partner, Jon Aynessazian, got into this business: “we own a landscape company called Lawn Artist LLC and an organic nursery callled Medicine Mama Hawaii, where we specialize in growing medicinal herbs. The LFA had begun to seriously impact these two businesses—economically, physcially and emotionally. We were getting stung by LFA, and they were also invading our medicinal herb plants, which made them unavailable to sell. Fortunately we knew exactly where to go, the Hawai‘i Ant Lab (HAL), which is a division of the County of Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture. We immediately began implementing the process they outlined.”

What they found is that people were being stung, their pets were gradually going blind, and their yards were eventually being overtaken by these stinging ants. LFA are, and will continue to be, a hardship on our local economy and ecology.

Susanne says “We have developed a program based on the protocol from HAL that has proven to be effective in controlling the LFA, for not only our properties, but that of our many clients. Our mission is to educate our island neighbors on how to effectively control their properties against the LFA and keep them safe using sustainable methods. We offer educational presentations to organizations such as Rotary, real estate offices, schools, farmers’ markets, and senior centers. We want to share this information with as many people as we can. One of the biggest objections we hear is that unless your neighbors treat it is futile to do it—this is not true. There is too much misinformation being spread. We encourage everyone to visit our website as well as the Hawai‘i Ant Labs website (littlefireants.com). It is the responsibility of each of us to stop the spread of LFA by either treating your infested property or protecting your property from infestation.” ❖

Fire Ants Hawaii
fireantshawaii@gmail.com
FireAntsHawaii.com
808.339.8288