The spread of fire ants could cost QLD an estimated $188 million

Fire ants could cost households more than $180 million if allowed to spread across Queensland, that’s according to the invasive species council.

Transcript

00:00Certainly quite alarming figures that have come out today and what the research has shown

00:06is that not only could it cost Queensland households up to $188 million in vet and medical

00:13bills each and every year, but that we could see more than 115,000 people being sent to

00:18hospital for those fire ant stings, as well as up to six people being killed annually

00:22if that spread does continue at the rate that it's already going.

00:26Now the Australian Institute conducted this research.

00:29They have been modelling it largely off their research from the United States and what they

00:34looked at this time was what the cost would be for each individual household if that was

00:38void of any additional government spending or further agriculture sector funding.

00:43So what that data showed was they analysed the spread of financial and medical strain

00:48in each electorate across the state.

00:50It found that homes, so not apartments but houses in particular from Brisbane all the

00:54way through to the Gold Coast would be the most impacted.

00:58It also found that pesticide expenditure could exceed more than $121 million annually.

01:04So it is certainly quite a concern and the Invasive Species Council has already identified

01:08that South East Queensland is really the epicentre of fire ant spread in Australia, having first

01:13been identified back in 2001 in Brisbane.

01:16So areas like Coomera on the Northern Gold Coast, Ipswich and Logan are already severely

01:22impacted by fire ant populations and certainly the research also assumes that more than 30%

01:28of the population will be stung and that's largely based off the behaviour of the invasive

01:32species in the United States.

01:34So that's caused major concern for researchers who are calling for urgent action.

01:38They've asked for state and federal governments to jointly fund efforts to eradicate the species

01:43sooner rather than later they say as the problem could become an even bigger issue than it

01:47already is.