Italy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMattia Menchetti, a researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Spain, said: \u201cS.Invicta is one of worst Invasive species. It can spread alarms quickly.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added: \u201cFinding this species in Italy was a big surprise, but we knew this day would come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, the red fire ants have been spotted in Spain, Finland, and the Netherlands. However, a colony had never been confirmed before this study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The colonies were found in the suburban area of Syracuse, however, it was unclear how or when the fire ants arrived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Researchers said that they believe the insects must have arrived at a transit point with lots of human activity, such as the city’s ports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also suggested that wind could have transported flying queen ants from northwest Syracuse, where the commercial port is located. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Smith, of Buglife, told the Guardian: \u201cIt\u2019s an open door for non-native species that are soil-dwellers. There\u2019s widespread concern about these non-native invasive ant species of which this is one of a handful which are on the cusp of making it into Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can do something to stop these arriving but once an invasive ant species is here it\u2019s going to be very hard to eradicate. Ants are notorious for being able to spread quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ants could soon spread all over Europe, researchers say. Seven percent of the continent, which includes large cities such as Barcelona, London, and Paris, has a climate suitable for the species. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The red fire ants are said to damage crops and can infest electrical equipment, including cars and computers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Researchers are sounding the alarm after a colony of red fire ants has been found in Europe for the first time, according to a new study. The red fire ant, whose scientific name is Solenopsis Invicta, is native to South America but has spread throughout other parts of the world, including the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, China, and Australia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":38641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[251],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cww7news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/fireants-e1694552852226.jpg?fit=700%2C394&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38640"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38642,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38640\/revisions\/38642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}