Originally from South America, it has invaded central Africa and caused significant damage in the United States: spotted in metropolitan France for the first time in 2022, the “electric ant”, an invasive exotic species, threatens to proliferate in the context of insufficient funds for its eradication, writes AFP on Tuesday.
The commune of La Croix-Valmer (in the south of France), located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, was attacked by Wasmannia auropunctata, known as the “electric ant” or “little fire ant”, notes Agerpres.
Boris Martor has a secondary residence here. In the summer of 2023, his son, then five years old, complained of bites on his body. “He had irritations, blisters, severe pain…” caused by the virulent attack of this tiny insect of only 1.5 millimeters.
The electric ant, originally from South America, invaded central Africa after being introduced to Gabon in the 1920s to fight insect pests. It also caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to crops in Texas.
It is currently considered one of the 100 most aggressive invasive species in the world, according to the French Institute for Research in Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE).
Two outbreaks in France
In France, the first super-colony was discovered in Toulon (south-east), in 2022, by Olivier Blight, a researcher at the Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity and Ecology of the University of Avignon.
About 60 kilometers from La Croix-Valmer, there is a second outbreak – there are only two outbreaks in France so far.
The electric ant is dangerous: in humans, apart from painful stings, it can cause anaphylactic shock in the case of allergic people. In countries where it is widespread, its attacks can cause blindness in cats and dogs.
“Its presence can disrupt all our ecosystems,” warned the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) in the French region of Paca (southeast) in 2024, in a letter addressed to the director general of this agency and consulted by AFP.
Remedy from Australia
The ants in two French outbreaks, probably arrived with the import of some plants, come from the same Israeli strain, “more cold-resistant than the original strain”, of tropical origin, according to OFB Paca.
Part of Olivier Blight's small team, Luc Gomel, an agronomic engineer in Montpellier, is on a mission to find a treatment to annihilate this insect.
The problem is that those marketed in France against common ants, which like sugar, are not to the taste of the tiny Wasmannia.
The researchers turned their attention to a product imported from Australia, Campaign, authorized by derogation to be used in a specific place and for a specific period, by placing granules in boxes to attract ants. But during tests that took place last spring in Toulon, it was found that many of the ants avoided the boxes.
The only solution, says Luc Gomel, is to do like the Australians and Hawaiians, who spray this product.
However, this method requires a new exemption that will have to be obtained urgently in order to be able to use the treatment as soon as the little ant comes out of hibernation, at the latest at the beginning of May.
The French Ministry for Ecological Transition said that “expertises are underway”, particularly regarding “toxicological risks”.
The institution warned, however, that these products will not guarantee eradication as the ants are mainly disseminated through vegetable waste and potted plants.
Even more so in a “budgetary context with more restrictions”.
A “green” fund of the French government, used until now, has been removed from the draft state budget for the year 2026. The scientists will therefore turn to Europe to try to obtain the necessary funding for a year of treatment.
But to eradicate the ant, “at least three years are needed”, warned researcher Olivier Blight.
The fire ant. Illustrative image. Source: © Fiat B2k | Dreamstime.com
