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Little Fire Ants on Maui

Little Fire Ants are not widely established on Maui and any suspect ants should be collected and reported to the Maui Invasive Species Committee. 

Status of the 19 known little fire ant infestations in Maui County as of August 2023. Click to learn additional details on which sites are in the treatment phase

Active Treatment:
(listed by most recent infestation)

West Ha’ikū:

Twin Falls:

Waihe’e Valley:

Happy Valley (Wailuku):

Kaʻelekū:

Huelo:

Monitoring Status

Nāhiku:

Haʻikū – Kaupakalua Road:

Lahainaluna High School:

South Maui Nursery:

Kapalua:

Eradicated:

Waiheʻe Farm:

  • Discovered: October 2009
  • Source: Unknown
  • Current Status: Monitoring. The last ants were found in June of 2017

Haʻikū – Lilikoʻi Road:

  • Discovered: January 2015
  • Source: Huelo infestation
  • Current Status: Monitoring. The last ants were found in August of 2017

South Maui Resort:

  • Discovered: May 2014
  • Source: Unknown
  • Current Status: Monitoring. The last ants were found in August of 2015

LFA Infested Truck:

  • Discovered: July 2015
  • Source: Nahiku infestation
  • Current Status: The last ants were found in July of 2015

South Maui Business:

  • Discovered: July 2014
  • Source: Hapuʻu ferns from the Big Island
  • Current Status: Monitoring. The last ants were found in July of 2014

Significant Interceptions

  • March 2016: A local landscaper was helping a friend haul building material to Hana. The landscaper knew that the shingles he was hauling had been stored outside in a LFA infested area of Hawaiʻi Island and was concerned that they may harbor little fire ants. He brought the shingles to the Maui Invasive Species Committee and they were indeed swarming with LFA. The shingles were treated and turned over to the owner. The landscapers’ actions prevented little fire ants from infesting the remote East Maui community.
  • December 2013/ January 2014: A Maui resident purchased hāpuʻu ferns at a garden shop. She tested the fern only to find LFA. Thanks to her actions and the traceback efforts of the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture, inspectors discovered LFA moving in hāpuʻu shipped from Hawaiʻi Island to Oʻahu, Lānaʻi, and other places on Maui. The infested hāpuʻu material still at garden shops on Maui was destroyed; 27 hāpuʻu, representing the bulk of the material sold was turned in and destroyed, none of it was infested.

 Island-wide surveys

The Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture regularly finds and destroys little fire ants during inspections at the airport and harbor, however, they cannot inspect 100% of material moved interisland there is an ever-present possibility that little fire ants will slip through. For this reason, any suspected populations should be reported.

Regular surveys will help prevent little fire ants from becoming widespread on Maui.

Treatment Methods

Eradicating little fire ants requires a thorough understanding of where they are. Each point represents a sample of ants collected. Red indicates little fire ants. Watch how the population changes after treatment. MISC image

Keep in mind that there is a difference between pest control (calling an exterminator) and pest eradication. Pest control reduces the pests in an area, like your home, but the threat of re-introduction from outside of the treated area is ever-present. Pest eradication eliminates every last individual in the population. If eradication is successful, there will be no pests left to re-establish. This process is meticulous and painstaking, requiring many years of surveying, treating, and repeating to achieve. Through extensive testing and field experience, the Hawaiʻi Ant Lab (HAL) and Maui Invasive Species Committee have developed specialized techniques to eradicate little fire ant infestations.  A very simplified explanation of an eradication effort as follows:

Last updated September 2020

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