As the weather warms up, red fire ants enter the active stage. The red fire ant has a bright red body color and is an alien invasive insect. Red fire ants pose a serious threat to agricultural and forestry production, human health, and ecosystems in the invaded areas, and were once known as "the strongest invasive insect on the surface".
The man was bitten by red fire ants and went into shock
Recently, when a man in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province went home to sweep the grave, he was accidentally bitten by red fire ants, and his limbs were weak and difficult to walk on the spot. The man was in shock when he was taken to the hospital, but fortunately he was rescued in time and has now recovered and returned to work.
The red fire ant and our common ants belong to the ant family, but it is an alien invasive insect that likes to nest in farmland, woodland, lawns, and even near lakes, fish ponds and other waters. Don't look at its small size, if you accidentally disturb the red fire ant nest in the wild, then you are facing a scene of worker ants pouring out of the nest and quickly climbing up your legs, arms and other parts.
When a human being bitten by a red fire ant can feel like a fire, it will feel like a fire, and it will also produce blisters. In general, most people only feel pain and discomfort, while a few people are severely allergic to proteins such as the proteins in the venom and can develop fever, temporary blindness, vomiting, hives, shock, and even death.
Zhang Lei, researcher at the Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences: If you are accidentally bitten by red fire ants, you must not take it lightly, if possible, quickly clean the wound with soapy water or water, and you can apply some allergic allergy drugs such as steroids, so that the pain and itching are not so strong, but once people have fever and difficulty breathing, they must go to the hospital in time.
In addition to its ferocious habits, the red fire ant has complex feeding habits, from seeds, plants, insects, vertebrates, and even wire skins are its food, and its competitiveness is very strong, it is very easy to form high-density populations in new invasion areas, and may cause serious harm to agricultural and forestry production, human health, public safety and ecological environment, so it is listed as one of the 100 most destructive invasive species in the world by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Strengthen prevention and control
Red fire ants have invaded 625 counties and cities
In 2003, red fire ants invaded Taiwan for the first time, and in 2004, they were first found in Wuchuan County, Guangdong Province. According to the statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in 2016, red fire ants invaded 281 counties (cities and districts) in 11 provinces, and by 2023, the data will change to 625 counties (cities and districts) in 12 provinces, and 344 counties and cities will be newly invaded in 7 years, and their spread rate is still very fast.
It is understood that Guangdong is the province with the largest occurrence area and the most serious damage of red fire ants, and it is the most active from March to May and September to November every year. However, due to the biological characteristics of red fire ants, the risk of spread is still high.
Where are the key points of prevention and control?
In addition to farmland, woodland, lawns and watersides, open-air power equipment boxes, airport runway indicator lights, air conditioning units, etc. are all places where red fire ants like to nest and gather in large numbers, which can easily cause short circuits or failures in power facilities, seriously affecting the safety of public facilities. So how to prevent red fire ants, and where are the key points of prevention and control?
Zhang Lei: The prevention and control of red fire ants should pay equal attention to prevention and control, which is a key point of prevention and control. In this way, the two transmission paths of red fire ants can be truly cut off outside the country and in China, and then the existing control effect can be consolidated to avoid its further spread.
In order to deal with this uninvited guest, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has successively formulated and issued the Emergency Plan for the Prevention and Control of Red Fire Ants, the Monitoring Regulations for the Epidemic of Red Fire Ants, and the Technical Regulations for the Chemical Prevention and Control of Red Fire Ants, and has set up 933 special epidemic monitoring stations in key areas across the country to organize agricultural departments at all levels to prevent and control the epidemic.
Since 2021, through the efforts of agricultural and rural departments at all levels in mainland China, the spread of red fire ants has slowed down, the area of occurrence has decreased, and the degree of occurrence has decreased. At present, the average live ant nest density per mu is less than 5, and the reoccurrence area of ant nest density greater than 30 accounts for only 0.3%, a decrease of 74 percentage points from the historical peak.
Source: CCTV news client