The first colonies of Wasmannia auropunctata in Spain were detected in an urbanization in Marbella (Málaga) in 2018. The most recent study on the invasion of this small ant indicates that it is already present in at least four municipalities on the Costa del Sol, the most recent of which is Benalmádena (Málaga). “The area occupied [by this species] in April 2023 [date of the most recent study] was 16.0 hectares. In October 2021 it was 9.9 hectares and in May 2018 it was 5.7 hectares. In In five years, the area has increased by 180%,” according to researchers Carlos Pradera and Xavier Espadaler in an article published in the Bulletin of the Spanish Association of Entomology.
The Wasmannia auropunctata is native to American countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, where it receives names such as little fire ant or electric ant (in English, little fire ant) ??because its bite produces intense and burning pain. The bite of the small fire ant normally “is no more than a nuisance in humans” but cases of blindness have been detected in wild and domestic animals that have been stung by this little ant in the eye – from cats, dogs, chickens and jaguars, even elephants in Africa-”, according to scientists who participated in the identification of this species for the first time in Spain, in 2018 in Marbella.
In addition to representing a certain risk at a health level due to the possibility of blinding animals – at the moment no case has been recorded in humans – at an ecological level, Wasmannia auropunctata can also be a serious problem, as is the Argentine ant, because its presence can lead to the disappearance of native ant species.
The study recently published by Carlos Pradera and Xavier Espadaler, in this sense, focuses part of its interest on verifying that in the areas of the Costa del Sol in which the presence of the small fire ant has been detected, the rest have practically disappeared. of ant species. Specifically, “in an urbanized area of ??the Eastern district of Marbella, and occupied by Wasmannia auropunctata, the apparent exclusion of other ant species was observed,” indicate the authors of the study.
In the research, baits were used to attract ants, arranged in seven exterior transects (infested by this species) and in six transects on its periphery (not infested). Using this procedure, the presence of 14 species of ants was observed in the fields where Wasmannia was not present, while in the area invaded by the small fire ant, only specimens of this invasive species and another species of ant were found. .
Carlos Pradera explained in statements to La Vanguardia that “the forecast is that this ant will continue to spread in our country, as is happening in Israel where it was detected in the early 2000s and is now distributed throughout the country. It is very problematic and we are not doing anything.”
In the Mediterranean area, Wasmannia is currently found in Israel, Cyprus, Spain (province of Malaga) and in Toulon, near Marseille in France, details Carlos Pradera.
After the presentation of the first cases in 2018, Xavier Espadaler explained that “it is not that it attacks the other ants directly, it is simply a matter of number, in some areas there are so many little fire ants in a colony, so many more than in the other species , who find food before anyone else: it is a competition by exclusion.”
The small fire ant can find very appropriate habitats for its establishment in humid and warm areas; as they can be, it lives in well-watered areas, such as orchards and private gardens on the Costa del Sol. “The fact that the southern coast of the Peninsula is so urbanized and there are high temperatures can facilitate the expansion of this ant, we do not rule it out in absolute. To eradicate this population, we would have to carry out treatments and stop watering the gardens of the urbanization for two years,” Xavier Espadaler commented in 2018.
Among the difficulties in dealing with the expansion of this ant is its small size. “”It is so small that it is practically undetectable, you have to know that it is there and look carefully, otherwise it is impossible to see a brown ant measuring just over 1 mm. It is possible that it is already in other places and no one has found it. seen”, commented Xavier Espadaler after the detection and study of the first colony in Marbella.
