Fire ants invade Hampton Roads

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY.com) --  Fire ants have found their way to Virginia and they're here to stay according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture.  A fire ant might look typical, but it's far from a regular ant.  They're known for their painful bites and their ability to kill small animals, and on RARE occasions humans, by swarming.

Jonathan Miles and his daughter Chloe enjoyed their day at City View Park in the Kempsville area of Virginia Beach, Tuesday.

"This is a nice place to come," says Miles.

Just outside the playground, Jonathan saw a posted notice saying the park was treated for fire ants, but Miles isn't concerned.  He's originally from Texas where fire ants are popular.

"I did take a look around and they had it nicely mulched around the play area, so that's not where you're likely to find them," says Miles.

Normally, you wouldn't find them in Virginia at all, but WAVY.com talked to agriculture officials who say over the years, people accidentally brought fire ants to Hampton Roads.

"They, in the past, have always kind of snuck in or were transported in artificially by people on infested nursery stock, or soil, sod, something of that nature that was being shipped up from infested states in the south," says Frank Fulgham of the VA Department of Agriculture. 

"You can have a fire ant queen that will hide out in the center of a rootball of a plant and no one knows it's there and once it reaches up here and it's planted in the soil, within a year or so you're going to have an infestation or a mound as we call it."

If there's a disturbance outside the mound, Fulgham says the ants will protect their queen.

"They will pick up the queen and move her through tunnels underground for maybe 10 feet, 10 or 15 feet."

So, the Virginia Department of Agriculture does what they can to try and get rid of the fire ant mounds for good.

"We would go and use a bait that we'd put around the mound. The ants would come up, collect that bait, take it back down, feed it to the other ants and to the queen.  Basically it will kill some of the ants, but it sterilizes the queen."

In some cases, like Hampton Roads, the ants have been able to hide for so long, new queens have been born.

"Those new queens can fly and they may go up to a mile away and start a new colony," says Fulgham.

Now Greenbrier Sports Park in Chesapeake has joined City View and other parks across Hampton Roads as one controlling a fire ant problem.  So to prevent this from happening to your property, Fulgham of the Agricultural Department suggests you ask questions before buying landscaping materials.

"Is this material free of fire ants?  Where did this initially come from? If it came from an area that has fire ants, make sure it's certified that it's free of fire ants."

You should also try to avoid the fire ant bite which really can leave a mark but in most cases, it's a treatable one.

"Caladryl, Benadryl, those types of agents are usually sufficient to treat it," says Dr. Mark Hippenstiel of Patient First in Virginia Beach.  "If it's more extensive as time goes on, if it's really bothering them, then they can come in and be treated by a topical steroid medication.  Also, some patients as time goes on tend to scratch at them and develop a secondary infection.  At that time they would require antibiotic treatment sometimes."

If you are swarmed by the ants, Hippenstiel says get to an emergency room immediately for treatment.

If you think you've seen a fire ant mound in your neighborhood, there are two numbers you can call:

Southeastern Regional Office for Southeastern Virginia Department of Agriculture -- (757) 562-6637 or Virginia Department of Agriculture -- (804) 786-3515

Here's a list of public areas in Hampton Roads affected by fire ants:

• Greenbrier Sports Park in Chesapeake
• Buckner Farms
• City View
• Hillcrest Farms
• Mount Trashmore
• Newlight
• Pine Ridge
• Rosemont Forest parks in Virginia Beach

Department of Agriculture officials says areas in Norfolk and Portsmouth are also affected, but they're still investigating the situation in those areas.