Jeremy Seamark confirms that these ants were found in the Liddle subdivison (seemingly from the days when it was a plant nursery), in Waikanae Park and a neighbour of his in Rewa Rewa Crescent has them. Thus they are certain to be in several places in Waikanae.
It was one of the topics discussed at the Paraparaumu-Raumati Community Board on Tuesday. Representatives of the Wellington Regional Council said that it is their responsibility to eliminate pests from public parks, this is being done with ant baits.
However, on private property the owners need to deal with this themselves. The more people who act collaboratively, the better the chance of clearing them from a neighbourhood.
On the NZ Landcare Research website it states:
Control Tools
A wide range of products have been developed, and are still being developed, in the war against pest ants, although not all are effective in the control of Argentine ants. The field of ant control products is a dynamic one, with new insecticides and technologies being developed all the time. Many retail and commercial pest control products lay claim to their ability to kill ants, but may not have been independently assessed for their effectiveness against Argentine ants specifically, and not under New Zealand’s particular conditions.
The primary types of ant control products available are:
Baits
Residual Surface Sprays
Granular Ground Treatments
Space and Cavity Treatments
The Tasman District Council website also has information on Argentine and Darwin’s ants (similar but different) including videos of ant control seminars.
Argentine and Darwin’s ants have only become established within Tasman District within the last two decades but have spread rapidly through urban areas and are starting to spread onto rural land.
Despite an aggressive campaign to contain them within the urban areas, they have continued to spread, and the present tools are not providing effective control. There is concern about their impact on activities in homes and gardens, in rest homes and hospitals, and their potential effect on horticultural crops and on native fauna.