October is Stop the Ant Month, and we’re reflecting on how far we’ve come in combating Little Fire Ants two years after identifying them on our property.
In October of 2024, just as we were gearing up to promote Stop the Ant Month to spread awareness about Little Fire Ants (LFA), we learned that the Kaua’i Invasive Species Committee had located multiple LFA hotspots on our property during a routine ant survey.
We were shocked. We hadn’t seen any signs of fire ants before, no one at our nursery had been bitten, and we tested all of our imported plant shipments that came through the nursery. We thought we were doing everything right to prevent an ant infestation, but the survey showed our system was flawed.
Before our LFA outbreak, we followed KISC’s Pono-advised protocol to test for LFA in all imported plants: We promptly tested every shipment that came into the nursery with a 1-hour peanut butter test. But what we didn’t realize was that LFAs don’t come out for the bait if they’ve been recently disturbed. Coming off a boat, onto a truck, and offloaded into the nursery left them on high alert and caused them to hunker down when we expected them to come out. We had the best of intentions, but our process had some big pukas.
We tried not to get discouraged and acted quickly to implement new protocols to prevent further spread. We stopped all shipments from the Big Island, where LFA are known to come from, and began quarantining and testing every plant that was sold before allowing customers to take them home. But we had to wait 24 hours after a plant had been moved before we could test it. This process was rigorous, and it was not easy for our team. Our protocol was constantly evolving as we faced new challenges and learned more about the habits of LFA.
We learned that Little Fire Ants don’t like to come out if the peanut butter stick is in bright, hot sun. We learned that they can be disturbed by water, and we should wait to test them until after rain has settled or the plants are done being watered. We also learned that the cardinals around our nursery loooove peanut butter and were actively stealing our sticks set out for testing.
We created quarantine tents, flagged plants for customers as to not disturb pots, and almost literally broke our necks testing and inspecting every single plant sold for months. We began working with KISC to treat our property to eradicate any existing FLA populations. We purchased a microscope to examine suspect ants and send off pictures to KISC for identification. We took everything we were learning about these pests and used it to inform our practices and educate our customers and clients.
Through our improved protocol for imported plants and regular treatment of our property, we are proud to say that our nursery remains LFA-free.
But we’re not letting our guard down. Today, we don’t just test plant material brought in from off-island; we test all plant material brought in, even if it’s sourced from local growers here on Kaua’i. We now know LFA is widespread on our island, and people may be entirely unaware of infestations on their own properties. That’s why we test every plant that enters our nursery, inform growers if we find LFA suspects, and connect them with KISC.
We could not be more proud of our team for their hard work during the height of the Little Fire Ant infestation. We asked a lot of our employees, and they were willing to go above and beyond to take precautions to help prevent the spread of LFA to our customers and to educate everyone who came into the nursery about the threat of LFA to personal property and our island. As a company, we want to lead by example, not for recognition, but because we believe we, as individuals, can make a difference and help to protect the ’Aina.
We were honored to be nominated for the Kaua’i Island MVP Award during Hawai’i Invasive Species Awareness Month and to accept this award at the Capitol on Oahu earlier this summer. We were also humbled to be invited to our local Kaua’i County Council meeting in July to receive recognition from councilmembers for our efforts in combating LFA. On that same day, we met with Mayor Derek Kawakami, who personally thanked us for our efforts and presented us with a proclamation, declaring July 29th Kaua’i Seascapes Nursery Day. Looking back two years later, it’s rewarding to know that our efforts did not go unnoticed and that we made a difference here in our community. We made lots of sacrifices and most definitely lost some business in the process, but we feel our company and our team are stronger than ever. And we’re motivated to keep going and continue to lead by example in our industry and our community.
