For release FA-APR-05

April 21, 2000
FIRE ANTS COST TEXANS MILLIONS
Contact: Dr. Curtis Lard, (979) 845-4746, c-lard@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION- Texans are feeling the sting of fire ants where it hurts most-their bank accounts. According to an economic impact study of red imported fire ants on five metroplexes in the state, damage and control costs reached $580 million in 1998.

"Based upon studies that we had seen, we expected to see losses anywhere from $100 to $300 million. When we came up with this number of over $580 million, we were surprised,"said Dr. Curtis Lard, agricultural economist at Texas A&M University, who conducted the study. The cities of Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio were surveyed by the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University with the assistance of the Texas Agricultural Statistical Service.

A breakdown of the itemized costs is as follows: fire ant control and treatment, $301.5 million; repairs, $80.6 million; cost of equipment replacement, $152 million; and medical treatment, $47.2 million.

Citizens of San Antonio felt the brunt, shelling out $202 million, with Austin costs totaling $61 million, Dallas $121.5 million, Fort Worth $74.9 million, and Houston $121.9 million.

Urban households were impacted the most, with the total annual costs reaching $526 million.

"For the typical household in an urban area, homeowners experienced a cost of $150 and about half of this was for attempting to control the fire ants," Lard said.

Golf courses were the second hardest hit by the fire ant. They experienced a loss of approximately $29 million as a result of fire ant damage primarily to irrigation systems and electrical boxes, but fire ants affected the whole golf course from the clubhouse to the green.

The red imported fire ant spread through Texas beginning in the 1950s and now infest more than 80 million acres in the eastern two-thirds of the state.

"It may be a little bitty ant, but it's got some potent power," Lard said.

The agricultural economics department at Texas A&M is now looking at the impact fire ants have on agriculture to get an even a more accurate account of the effect this pest is having on the Texas economy. -30-