Di Fyson is no fan of fire ants. Hours after disturbing a nest at the edge of her Scenic Rim farm in south-east Queensland she was in excruciating pain.<\/p>\n
“I stood in a nest, didn’t think the bites were very bad, and then woke up in the middle of the night feeling like someone had set fire to my feet,” the certified organic vegetable grower said.<\/p>\n
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Ms Fyson has worked with the National Fire Ant Eradication Program (NFAEP) to stop the invasive pest from spreading, protecting staff and animals from being bitten.<\/p>\n
Treatments of insect hormone treatment used on organic farms were effective. No more nests have been found in the two years since she was bitten.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On certified organic farms bait is spread by hand. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
But Ms Fyson is fortunate that baits were never used on the certified organic areas of her land where she grows leafy green vegetables.<\/p>\n
Some organic growers in the biosecurity zone now fear losing their certification.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fire ant baits contain different insecticides worldwide, but Australia uses Pyriproxyfen\u00a0and Methoprene. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n
Treatment suspended on organic farms<\/p>\n
Late last month the NFAEP suspended all treatment on certified organic farms, confirming that the fire ant treatment it used “may be unsuitable”.<\/p>\n
It has an active chemical ingredient called s-methoprene, a slow-acting insect growth regulator.<\/p>\n
Also used by councils to control mosquitoes, it mimics juvenile hormones and prevents insects from metamorphosing or turning into adults.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fire ant treatment\u00a0contains ingredients found in common pest control products, but at a much lower concentration. (Supplied: National Fire Ant Eradication Program)<\/p>\n
But the growth regulator was not the issue.<\/p>\n
The problem the NFAEP discovered was that the soybean oil and corn grit used to get the fire ants to carry s-methoprene into their nests contained genetically modified organisms (GMO) material.<\/p>\n
Breaching export standards<\/p>\n
The national export standard for organic and biodynamic produce prohibits GMO material, as do many private domestic organic standards.<\/p>\n
The NFAEP said it was working to source non-GMO alternatives and “assess and minimise any impacts” for affected organic operators.<\/p>\n
The chairman of Organics Operators Australia, Peter Hislop-Speers, believed the NFAEP had acted “in good faith” on “information that they trusted”.<\/p>\n
Still, he said it could have a “devastating impact” on affected growers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The fire ant team treated a 500-metre radius around an outbreak at North Arm in January. (ABC News: Jennifer Nichols)<\/p>\n
The federal Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has since said the baits did not contain GMOs because the ingredients were “not live and viable”.<\/p>\n
The office regulates living GM plants and viable seeds that can grow into genetically modified plants.<\/p>\n
But Mr Hislop-Speers said GMO disclosure needed to be reviewed because any use of gene technology in organic exports was completely banned.<\/p>\n
“This is a significant threat to certified organic property owners and could carry a 5 to 10-year ban on the product that the claims of the products they produce,” he said.<\/p>\n
Australian Organic Limited is the peak body for an industry worth $2.6 billion annually.<\/p>\n
Its CEO, Jackie Brian, said she was waiting on results from the NFAEP’s toxicology report.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jackie Brian wants clarity for the industry. (ABC News: Billy Cooper)<\/p>\n
“We have been told that it’s likely to be a limited number of operators that were impacted,” Ms Brian said.<\/p>\n
“A smaller number who were impacted are exporters.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Certified organic carrots grown without synthetic chemicals. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Southern Cross Certified represents around 600 organic producers in horticulture, livestock, hay and grain.<\/p>\n
Its CEO, Ben Copeman, said all but one of its 40 clients within the biosecurity zone had nests individually treated.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ben Copeman does not believe there was any contamination. (Landline)<\/p>\n
In that one case the helicopter bait drop was on a paddock being rested.<\/p>\n
Mr Copeman reassured consumers and believed that the incidents would be minimal and able to be isolated.<\/p>\n
“We don’t believe there has been any contamination or any contaminated product getting into the market,” he said.Fire ant fightLoading…<\/p>\n
Organics industry representatives that ABC Rural spoke to support the effort to eradicate fire ants to protect agricultural and horticultural crops.<\/p>\n
The invasive species’ toxic venom has been responsible for hundreds of deaths in the US since the 1990s due to allergic reactions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A fire ant bite can cause a nasty rash, and there have been reports of deaths in other countries. (Supplied: National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program)<\/p>\n
“I think it is a massive problem that we need to deal with and we also need to deal with it in a hurry,” Ms Fyson said.<\/p>\n
She shared the industry’s frustrations with communication breakdowns and delays in dealing with the NFAEP, describing staff as “underfunded and overwhelmed”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Di Fyson is no fan of fire ants. Hours after disturbing a nest at the edge of her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,96564,2463,95350,96566,29149,28279,96565,128,11942,2284],"class_list":{"0":"post-141723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-certified-organic","11":"tag-fire-ants","12":"tag-gmo","13":"tag-methoprene","14":"tag-national-fire-ant-eradication-program","15":"tag-organic","16":"tag-pyriproxyfen","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-sunshine-coast","19":"tag-treatment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}