Argentine ants invade Kapiti community

A small community on the Kapiti Coast is under attack from ants and frustrated residents are fighting back.

The Raumati South Residents' Association has received numerous reports of infestations of Argentine ants overrunning homes and gardens.

Argentine ants are considered one of the worst invasive species in the world.

Residents' association chair Trevor Daniell has visited one of the infested homes and said the ants were absolutely everywhere.

"If you bumped into a tree you'd get a shower of ants, there were ants all climbing up the wall in the kitchen, ants coming out of the electric plug holes."

Daniell said ants were even infesting cars, and that could be another way they were spreading.

"People travel round and slam the door in the wrong place, two or three ants drop out and away they go again."

A Kapiti Coast pest control company said the number of callouts to ant exterminations this year had been crazy.

Maarten​ Lintern from Action Property Services said the hot and humid weather was making pest numbers explode.

"People who have never seen ants before and have been in a house for 20 years are suddenly getting ants in."

He said many callouts were for the white-footed house ant species which were also causing a frenzy in the area.

Lintern said it was usual to have some ant infestations in the area but they were particularly worse this year.

The residents' association said the only way to control the "major threat to our lifestyle" was for the whole community to work together.

Daniell said the association would meet this Sunday to discuss the situation and plan a knock back of the ant attacks.

"Everybody has to participate, if six people in the street do it and one person doesn't, then it's a waste of time."

He said they were also organising a workshop to show people how to make their own ant bait stations from plastic containers.

Argentine ants were first discovered in Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium during opening-ceremony rehearsals for the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

They had since spread across the North Island and to several places in the South Island.