They are natural born killers, attacking in huge swarms, stinging victims hundreds of times in a matter of seconds and capable of stripping a baby bird to bare bones.
Red fire ants, which originated in the tropics of South America and have raged in Taiwan and China, are now in Hong Kong. They are one of the most aggressive and fastest-spreading insects known to man.
While other ants bite, they sting. And while most stinging insects sting once then either stop or die, red fire ants can sting again and again.
In the space of two seconds, each ant can sting a victim 10 times, injecting a venom that paralyzes victims and is poisonous enough to kill humans in extreme cases.
In October last year there were outbreaks of them in Taipei and elsewhere, but some government officials said they had created an irrational fear among many Taiwanese. The Council of Agriculture put together a plan to get rid of the critters, which seems to have prevented a worse outbreak.
Red Menace
An expert in invasive species said that Hong Kong, which has so far discovered more than a dozen suspected nests, has only weeks to get rid of the red menace.
"They are just like a cancer," said Dr Billy Hau Chi-hang of the University of Hong Kong. "If you detect it early you have a chance of getting rid of it. Once it spreads, there is no hope.
"The US has spent countless amounts of money dealing with this species in the last 60 years and they still can't solve the problem.
That is why Hong Kong has got to take this seriously.
The ants appear to have set up nests in Hong Kong after arriving inside potted plants imported for February's Chinese New Year festival.
Describing how the ants attack, Hau said, "If you disturbed a nest and 30 ants climbed on your body, you could receive 300 stings in a couple of seconds.
"They are really fast moving when they attack. They zoom out. They sting their subject, paralyzing it and injecting a poison into the body of the subject to disable it so they can consume it slowly.
"The stings could be lethal for humans if you have an allergy or if you have a very weak body. Very old people and young children could be at risk, as with many kinds of viruses or diseases."
For the most part, the ants feed off plants, insects and small animals including frogs and lizards. "They are very aggressive," Hau said.
"They attack whatever they can catch. There are even reports of red fire ants going after birds in their nests. They can strip a baby bird into bones.
"They attack in huge numbers. That is why they have such an impact on ecology. On humans, the impact is variable. In most cases you will get a sting although if you are really allergic to stings you will be in trouble."
A human stung by a red fire ant feels a burning sensation at the point of impact. A swelling then appears and a blister. In mild cases, the sting causes itchy, irritated skin.
In more severe cases it causes nausea, vomiting, disorientation and dizziness and, in a small percentage of victims, a potentially fatal anaphylactic shock.
Because of the geography and population spread in Hong Kong, however, Hau said he believed the chief threat of the red fire ants would not be to humans but rather to the ecology and remaining agricultural lands of the rural New Territories north of the city. Hong Kong needs to root out the problem before the ants begin reproducing, a process which begins when soil temperatures reaches 240C
Nesting Queens
A red fire ant nest will normally contain up to around 200,000 insects and will be 1m in diameter and 1m deep. In infested areas, there can be anywhere from 200 to 2,000 nests in every hectare of land.
Within 18 to 21 weeks of a nest being established, a queen ant is ready to set up a new colony, usually within 1km of the original nest. By the time a nest is mature, a queen produces up to 1,500 eggs a day.
In one type of nest, the queen produces a second queen who flies away with male ants. They mate, the male dies, and the new queen sets up a colony of her own.
In a second type, there are multiple queens, some of whom walk across the ground to set up a sister colony nearby.
Since reaching the southern US in the late 1930s, red fire ants have colonized an estimated 50 million hectares of land.
Texan homeowners alone spend an estimated US$10.5 million a year on pesticides to control them.
More than 60 years after they first arrived from South America, the US has failed to eradicate red fire ants.
Now, according to Hau, Hong Kong has just a few short weeks to see the insects off or be left with a nasty itch that just will not go away.
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