USDA Quarantine Program in Urban Areas

• Introduction

• Integrated Pest Management
• USDA Quarantine Program

• Management Options
• Organizing a Community-Wide Suppression Program
• Treatment Methods
• Biology and Identification
• Medical Problems
• History of Control Efforts
• Fire Ant Insecticides
• Policy Statement
• Acknowledgments
• Print this Lesson

Imported Fire Ant U.S. Quarantine Map, USDA

Because fire ants are easily transported in nursery stock and soil, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) developed a quarantine program for this pest in the 1950s. For details on the Imported Fire Ant Quarantine, contact your state plant regulatory official/inspector and visit the following Web site for technical details: Imported Fire Ants. Visit the USDA-APHIS Plant Health Web site to view and print quarantine maps.

Fire ants must be eliminated from regulated articles that will be transported, which requires treatments different from the management type treatments described in this publication. These regulations are administered by state regulatory agencies (including the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, Arkansas State Plant Board, California Department of Food and Agriculture, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Georgia Department of Agriculture, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, Oklahoma State Department of Food and Forestry, Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Clemson University Department of Plant Industry, and Texas Department of Agriculture). The purpose of the quarantine program is to minimize the spread of imported fire ants by requiring proper inspection and treatment of all nursery stock, turfgrass, hay and other articles shipped out of quarantined areas (see map). Inspectors also survey non-quarantined counties for fire ants and occasionally treat small, isolated infestations. The public should do its part to avoid spreading the ants by not transporting or purchasing items infested with fire ants.