Unfortunately, the Little Fire Ant (LFA) is showing up all over coffee farms from North to South Kona. If you don’t have them yet, you will likely have them soon as they easily hitchhike on cars, people, coffee bags or even just tramping across property lines. These little buggahs are no joke, and can cause major problems for picking crews, pets, and even for you inside your home. Their bite raises a welt that can be quite irritating for hours.
KCFA is sponsoring a training session with the Hawaii Ant Lab on Tuesday September 12 at 4pm at CTAHR Because we are a food crop, there are some very specific “Do’s and Don’ts” for certain pesticides in our fields. To combat these ants and to make sure we don’t leave residues in our crop, it’s important to understand the best way to safely combat them.
If you are not sure if you have them yet, we highly recommend doing the “peanut butter chopstick” survey before the class. Freeze the sticks and bring them to the class for proper identification.
The Hawaii Ant Lab is online at http://www.littlefireants.com/