You may have heard that fire ants are on the move, and spreading in parts of Southside and Southwest Virginia. There’s another invasive ant that’s been in Virginia for nearly a century — called the Asian needle ant. They sting, and their numbers are growing.
If you didn’t know Asian needle ants are in Virginia, you’re not alone. Assistant professor of Entomology at Virginia Tech, Chin-Cheng Scotty Yang, said when they do outreach events, about 80% of people are unaware of these small, black ants.
“They are definitely stinging insects,” Yang said. “I think their sting is a little more painful than fire ants. That’s just my personal opinion.”
The good news, if there is any, is these ants don’t tend to swarm in large numbers as fire ants tend to do. They also aren’t as aggressive.
Yang said Asian needle ants were first discovered in Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina in the 1930s, and likely traveled here from Japan. Now, they’ve spread throughout the East Coast. Their stings inject venom and can cause an allergic reaction.
Recently there’s been an increasing number of cases in North Carolina of these ants biting people while they’re swimming.
“Sometimes these Asian needle ants will get trapped in the swimming pool, and they don’t die instantly,” Yang explained. “Usually when ants are drowning, they become super aggressive.”
Yang suggests closely inspecting firewood before moving it to your yard, because these ants tend to nest inside wood. Traps that are specifically designed for fire ants can also kill Asian needle ants.
To help figure out how common Asian needle ants are in the New River Valley, Yang and his team made small boxes that attract the ants and then placed the boxes on the Virginia Tech campus. They managed to relocate around 60,000 Asian needle ants (about 200 colonies). The boxes are available for the public to use in their yard to test whether they have Asian needle ants.
The ants can then be moved to a research lab, where Yang and his team will study them to learn more about these stinging, invasive bugs.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
