Zhang et al.: Imported Fire Ants in Mainland China 723 AN OVERVIEW OF THE RED IMPORTED FIRE ANT (HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDAE) IN MAINLAND CHINA RUNZHI ZHANG1,2, YINGCHAO LI1, NING LIU1 AND SANFORD D. PORTER3 1State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 2E-mail:
[email protected] 3USDA-ARS, Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, 1600 SW 23rd Drive, Gainesville, FL 32608 ABSTRACT The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren is a serious invasive insect that is native to South America. Its presence was officially announced in mainland China in Jan 2005. To date, it has been identified in 4 provinces in mainland China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Fujian) in a total of 31 municipal districts. The total area reported to be infested by S. invicta in late 2006 was about 7,120 ha, mainly in Guangdong Province (6,332 ha). Most of the re- ported human stings are in the heavily infested area around Wuchuan City. The most com- monly reported reactions have been abnormal redness of the skin, sterile pustules, hives, pain, and/or fever. It has been predicted that most of mainland China is viable habitat for red imported fire ants, including 25 of 31 provinces. The probable northern limit of expan- sion reaches Shandong, Tianjing, south Henan, and Shanxi provinces. Traditional and new insecticides including the bait N-butyl perfluorooctane sulfonamide and the contact insecti- cide Yichaoqing have been developed and used to control S. invicta. The Ministry of Agricul- ture and the Chinese government have established an 8-year eradication program (2006 to 2013) for S.