MAKAWAO – Intermediate and high school students on Maui are on the front lines of a battle to stop invasive species before they become entrenched on the Valley Isle, and the youths need more troops to fight the war.
The enemy? Two species of fire ants carrying weapons of minute destruction – a sting so powerful that it feels like a pin prick of acid or packs a blister-causing wallop that burns like fire.The “little red fire ant,” or Wasmannia auropunctata, has established itself on the Big Island where workers at macadamia nut orchards would rather quit their jobs than get stung by ants all day. The orange ants measure only about 1.5 millimeters from head to tail.
The other, “red imported fire ant” or Solenopsis invicta, which is more aggressive and gives a more serious bite, has not been found in the state so far, but it has become a major agricultural and urban pest throughout the southeastern United States. State and federal agencies have spent more than $250 million to control or eradicate the fire ant, which has damaged soybeans, corn and other crops. Private agencies and individuals have spent $25 million to $40 million annually for chemical pesticides for fire ant control, according to the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Shannon Wianecki, an outreach liaison of the Ho’ike O Haleakala outreach program, is enlisting the help of students who hunt for the fire ants and do “real science” in the process. (The outreach program is supported in part by the Maui Invasive Species Committee.)
“We don’t have enough resource managers on the ground to look for ants the size of dust,” Wianecki said.
Instead, the students comb the island, collecting ants and data that are forwarded to the Maui Invasive Species Committee, which inserts the student observations in its database.
The database details where different species of ants were found around the island.
Wianecki said the outreach program’s curriculum, which includes various studies, was developed by Maui schoolteachers, community members and resource management staff. The aim was to give students a feel for putting science to practical use in the field.
“We want students doing real science,” she said, adding the experience could be a launching point for students who want to pursue careers in science or resource management.
So far, Seabury Hall, Lahainaluna High School, Kalama Intermediate School, Kamehameha Maui Intermediate and one student at King Kekaulike High School have assisted MISC in identifying ants.
A group of 80 students, mostly Seabury Hall freshmen, has taken its project further than any other school. Their project includes talks on invasive species, field trips, lab work, global positioning system studies and public outreach work.
Last week, students in Seabury Hall science teacher Sherri Garcia’s biology class were busy mounting their ants on tiny papers so they could have samples of what ants they collected at their homes across the island.
The process was a tedious one as students tried to glue their ants on tiny slivers of paper.
But for freshman Moani Ichinose, the tedious work didn’t seem to bother her as she worked to identify her ants through a microscope.
Ichinose, 14, said collecting the ants at her Kihei home proved to be challenging “because the day I went to catch them, it was really raining. You need the perfect condition to catch them.”
It took Ichinose three days to collect the ants.
Garcia said students trapped the ants in a small plastic cylinder using part of a popsicle stick covered “with the worst peanut butter you buy off the shelf. No Jif or anything like that.”
Students observed weather conditions while collecting their ants and took global positioning system coordinates of their exact location. The ants then were frozen in cylinders until they could be mounted.
As 15-year-old Kate Shoemaker carefully mounted her ant, she said she’s learned “there’s lots of species of ants.”
There are more than 40 in Hawaii.
Alecia Tumpap, 14, said she collected her ants along her driveway in Pukalani.
She used a toothpick to separate one ant from her ant pile.
“I’ve learned that there are a lot of things that are invading Maui and Hawaii,” she said.
Garcia said the students next will identify the species of ants they’ve collected and produce an informational brochure they can distribute to members of the public.
Will Haines, a Seabury Hall graduate and now a graduate student in entomology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, assisted the students with their mounting work. He was one of several people who helped develop the Seabury project.
He said it is important for people to become vigilant and know about the invasive and alien species that pose threats to the island’s environment.
Haines said he also will set up an online “Classified Guide” to help the students identify their ants.
Garcia said the Seabury project will last until the end of the school year. She has used an $8,500 Toyota grant for excellence and innovation in science education to purchase materials for Seabury’s ant identification project. She hopes to have next year’s students work on the project, too.
The good news is that so far no fire ants have been found on Maui, according to Wianecki. She said she did have a scare when she saw a specimen that looked like a fire ant in one student collection. But it was a false alarm.
Generally, ants around the islands are 3 to 5 millimeters long, while the red fire ants are 2 millimeters or less, she said.
Wianecki said the sting of the fire ant found on the Big Island feels like a “pin prick of acid.”
But Garcia, who has lived in Texas, where the more aggressive “red imported fire ant” has caused havoc, said the bite from that ant is a lot worse.
“It feels like fire. It makes it blister. Then it stings,” Garcia said.
For more information on the Ho’ike O Haleakala Outreach programs, call MISC at 573-MISC (6472) or send e-mail to hoikeinfo@yahoo.com.
Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.
