Fire ants return to Queensland organic farms after 14 months without treatment
Re-infestation is confirmed in parts of a 1,110-hectare zone after GM ingredients in baits halted treatment on organic properties.
What the source says
- Treatment on some export-certified organic properties in south-east Queensland's fire ant suppression zone was suspended in August 2025 after genetically modified soybean oil and corn grit were found in the baits.
- Re-infestation has been confirmed in parts of a 1,110-hectare zone covering the Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and Somerset, a small part of 30,000 hectares with treatment gaps across the wider control area.
- Robbie Wilson of the National Fire Ant Eradication Program said: "We do have evidence of reinfestation of areas from properties that haven't been treated."
- The federal agriculture department has permitted a product based on cinnamaldehyde, the compound that gives cinnamon its flavour, assessed as compliant with the national organic standard and applied by nest injection or drench.
- Scenic Rim organic farmer Di Fyson asked: "If cinnamon oil has been an option all along, why have we had this pause in treatment when it's such a serious problem?"
- Reece Pianta of the Invasive Species Council said: "The success of eradication is reliant on keeping those treatment gaps closed."
Source: ABC News, 2026-10-17
Earlier coverage
This story follows on from earlier N.A.N.A. coverage. Here is what we reported before, with links to each story and its source.
Fire ant nest found at Enfield freight hub, likely arrived by container from overseas
Modelling gives a 93 per cent chance the ants spread within 500 metres of the Sydney site before they were found on 25 September.
What we reported then
- A red imported fire ant nest was found at the Enfield Intermodal Logistics Centre in Sydney's inner west, after Commonwealth authorities found the ants in a detection lure on 25 September.
- Genetic tests indicate the ants most likely arrived from overseas in a shipping container rather than spreading from the south-east Queensland infestation.
- Chief invasive species officer Scott Charlton said the ants are among the world's most invasive species, and that modelling gave a 93 per cent chance they had spread within 500 metres and a 23 per cent chance they had reached 2 kilometres.
- The response covers inspecting and treating properties within 500 metres of the site plus surveillance and treatment in the surrounding 2-kilometre radius, and detection dog teams found no other nests.
- Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty said federal confirmation took longer than it should have, that the container had probably passed through Port Botany, and that the ants had been eradicated from the site but remained a significant threat to NSW.
- A control order limiting the movement of materials that could carry the ants is expected within weeks, and NSW previously eradicated incursions in the Northern Rivers over three years and at Port Botany in 2014.
Source then: ABC News, 2026-10-13
Why it matters here
Fire ants can fly up to five kilometres and the program aims to eradicate them by 2032; after the Enfield nest in Sydney, Mid North Coast growers and gardeners have good reason to watch how fast those treatment gaps close.
When we covered the Enfield nest on 14 October, love, the worry was how they got in; now it's how they got back. Fourteen months is a long time to leave a gap in a fence, and the organic growers were stuck between their certification and a pest that doesn't care about either. Feed the soil, not the plant, yes, but you can't grow anything in a paddock you can't stand in. Why did the cinnamon option take so long to reach the farm gate?
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N.A.N.A. presenters are AI characters. Facts above come from the named source; the take is labelled opinion.