The fight against the spread of fire ants continues across south-east Queensland, with hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to contain and eradicate the invasive species. Authorities have renewed their efforts as new infestations have been found.
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00:00Colleen Lavender spends as much time as she can outdoors with her kids, but that's changing
00:08with the growing spread of a nasty pest.
00:10She lost her footing and fell over and managed to land in a big nest of fire ants and got
00:16them all over her elbow and they were up into her neck and down into her shorts and on her
00:21legs.
00:22It was a scary experience for her 11-year-old daughter.
00:26Little pinpricks of fire, she said, and it just started to swell and all the little bites
00:32came up in raised white lumps and all around just got really irritated and red.
00:39Now the family is having to adapt their lifestyle.
00:43We're a little bit more careful what we do out in the yard and make sure we've got shoes
00:46on.
00:47The kids are pretty good at spotting nests.
00:50Since they arrived in Brisbane's port in 2001, the ants have spread across South East Queensland
00:56and into northern New South Wales.
00:59We know what is at risk is our agricultural industries.
01:03We're worried about our public health.
01:05It will impact our infrastructure.
01:07It'll impact the environment.
01:09A federal Senate inquiry has found that it is still possible for fire ants to be eradicated
01:14from Australia, but it'll take better coordination and cooperation between government, industry
01:21and the community.
01:22As the species numbers grow, so does spending.
01:26All the states, territories and commonwealths have an additional $593 million over the forward
01:32four years.
01:33Economic modelling indicates that if the ants continue to spread, they'll cost the government
01:38more than $22 billion by the 2040s.
01:42If they're spreading this quickly so far, we could be in trouble.