Risk To "Endangered" Species
Finally Spurs Fire Ant Fears

LOS ANGELES — It all depends on whose ox is being gored, apparently.

A decade or more after the federal government refused to allow farmers and ranchers to use widely available pesticides to protect their crops and livestock from fire ants, bureaucrats are bemoaning the risk the vicious pests may pose to so-called "endangered" species.

The ants, which began infesting California's Orange County and parts of Los Angeles and Riverside last fall, could create a major ecological imbalance by preying on creatures like insects, toads and baby birds still in their shells, the bureaucrats warn.

More than 100 Southern California plants and animals are listed or proposed for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Florida, Alabama and Texas already have fire ant infestations, which once could have been controlled with pesticides but are now entirely out of hand.

"Anything that nests on the ground, in the ground or lives on the ground, is potentially at risk," said Robert Fisher, a research ecologist with the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey and a conservation scientist at San Diego State University.

It is not clear which wildlife would be endangered by the ants, but the insects could deplete food supplies for toads and lizards by devouring other ants and insects, he frets.

Fire ants are known to attack nestling baby birds, raising concerns about potential dangers to the California least tern, the Western snowy plover, the least Bell's vireo, the gnatcatcher and the Southwestern willow flycatcher. All five are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

For the 1200-acre Rancho Mission Viejo Ecological Preserve in Orange County, this means deciding whether fire ants should be allowed to infest the preserve or if pesticides should be used to control the insects.

``It's a delicate balance to decide what is better,'' said the reserve's executive director, Laura Cohen. ``And these sorts of decisions, which should take some time, have to be done so quickly because of the immediacy.''

No infestations are known to exist in the preserve, but inspectors have had little time to search the wilderness area because of the pressing need to investigate residential areas.

``I would have to judge them a very major problem, if they become widely established,'' said Dan Simberloff, a bio-invasion expert at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.