The Invasive Species Council Advocacy Director Jack Gough has posted a impassioned plea for Australians to take the fire ant threat seriously.

Posting on LinkedIn Mr Gough blasted “fringe nutters” for spreading “bunch of disinformation and conspiracy theories spreading about fire ant baiting in Queensland, including some nutty, defamatory attacks on the Invasive Species Council and our staff.”

According to Mr Gough fire ants are one of the worst invasive threats Australia faces. “On top of huge impacts on human health, infrastructure and farming, fire ants devastate wildlife,” he said.

“They reduce local ants by 90 percent where they establish, threaten bee hives and attack and kill native wildlife including koalas, echidnas, platypus, turtles, frogs and ground-nesting birds.”

Mr Gough said if fire ants aren't eradicated in south-east Queensland they'll spread to most of Australia.

In his opinion eradication in Australia is still possible because of the availability of highly targeted baits which can completely remove fire ants from an area.

“Success relies on three treatments per year for two years covering 100 per cent of an area.”

Mr Gough is concerned that if fire ants aren't eradicated, people across Australia will take treatment into their own hands.

“This means indiscriminate use of much harsher chemicals all over the place - including home 'treatments' like pouring petrol on nests. This will be an environmental disaster and a real chemical threat to the environment and communities.” he said.

While The Invasive Species Council isn't involved in the baiting Mr Gough’s post contained a clear explanation of the process.

“Australia’s fire ant eradication program mainly uses insect growth regulator baits, with extremely low levels of the active chemical ingredient, in broadcast treatments from helicopter and ground teams.

“Fast-acting contact baits are also used in limited circumstance to spot-treat nests where human or animal health impacts from fire ants are a concern (lik a school or hospital).

“The baits are small pieces of corn grit (1–3 mm) soaked in soybean oil mixed with a tiny amount of the insecticide - only 5 grams per kilogram of the active ingredient.

“Over 1000 square metres just 200 grams of bait is applied containing only 1 gram of the active ingredient!

“Insecticides used for growth regulator baits are Methoprene or Pyriproxyfen - widely used at higher levels in mosquito control, livestock feed additives. and domestic pet products.

“The fire ants then forage for the baits, which prevent juvenile ants from growing, and colonies are destroyed over several months.

“The treatments have very low toxicity in animals and the nature of the baits makes them unappealing to other insects.

“They pose negligible risk of long-term persistence in the environment and are not even classified as 'poisons' because of their low toxicity.”

The baiting program is not without risk, which Mr Gough addressed.

“While baiting does also kill some native ant species in an area, once fire ants are removed native ants quickly repopulate,” he said.