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Mahalo to the Maui Invasive Species Committee (MISC) and the Hawaii Ant Lab for their hard work and successful strategy for ridding the jungles of Nahiku of the amazing destructive little fire ant. They may have saved our way of life.
I always thought that this ant was misnamed. It is tiny, but its impacts on families, pets, farms, and whole communities' ways of life are huge. Their sting is like electricity. They inhabit trees and rain down on people below by the hundreds. Whole communities in the South Pacific have been abandoned when the ants established their super colonies. Little fire ant is too diminutive a name for such a dangerous pest. Devil fire ants is more like it.
They had colonized 175 acres in Nahiku, some of the toughest terrain on Maui. After years of constant effort, MISC and the Ant Lab came up with a scientific strategy for snuffing the little devils out. The news that the Nahiku site appears clean of the ants came as a big relief for those of us paying attention ("MISC: Eradication of little fire ants in Nahiku now 'in sight,'" The Maui News, Oct. 26).
I also want to salute Maui County. Both the county council and a number of administrations have seriously supported this cause. Maui County has been unique in Hawaii for its investment in controlling invasive pests than can damage our way of life. Mahalo to everyone who has supported the cause.
Now, can someone please figure out a method for convincing coqui frogs to stop making such a racket all night long?
Dave DeLeon
Haiku