Evacuate the Sandbox! Japan Is Freaking Out About Fire Ants
A few hundred of the invasive, stinging insects—first discovered at a cargo port—have everyone from exterminators to sumo wrestlers taking extreme precautions; industrial-strength ponchos
TOKYO—The first invaders, hiding in a cargo container, landed in western Japan on May 20. They possessed powerful fangs to hold their victims down before pumping them with venom.
The intruders were caught and promptly destroyed, but as more marauders breached the nation’s borders, television-news shows began fanning concerns of a crippling attack.
Workers distributed wanted posters. Inspectors armed with poisoned bait swept through cargo ports with orders to kill entire colonies on sight. Even sumo wrestlers began taking precautions.
At the Kobe Municipal Minatojima Kindergarten about 2 miles from the first discovery site, children were banned from the sandbox. “It’s on the most likely path of infiltration,” explained the principal, Fumiko Miki.
The miscreants now terrorizing Japan are, in fact, ants. Fire ants, to be precise—a genus famous for its reddish-brown color and for painful jabs delivered from stingers in their abdomens.
These South American arthropods are generally no larger than 6 millimeters and are so commonplace in U.S. southern states that there is an annual festival named after them in Ashburn, Ga.
Nevertheless, since Japan first learned that these insects had arrived by hitching rides on foreign cargo, each new discovery has caused another round of breathless official reports, some of which have described the interlopers as foreign “assassins.”
No one is saying fire ants are pleasant. A swarm can consume small animals such as frogs, birds and even young livestock. Their sting is comparable to that of a wasp. In rare cases, an allergic reaction results in swelling or, in extreme situations, death.
To some outsiders, however, this island nation may be making a mountain out of an anthill. “This had to happen sometime,” said Adam Cronin, an ecologist at Tokyo Metropolitan University. “The response is a bit of the Japanese overreacting to anything that’s a bit scary.”
Japan’s fevered response is partly the result of a government ministry’s report that said the ants were responsible for 100 deaths a year in the U.S. The ministry backpedaled on July 18, saying it couldn’t verify the death figures and had removed the reference.
Around 100 people die in the U.S. from allergic reactions to insect stings every year, according to the American College of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology, an association of doctors. More than half are from bee and wasp stings. It doesn’t provide data on casualties caused by fire ants.
At a park near a Tokyo port where fire ants were found, a group of women playing tennis said they were warning their grandchildren about the invaders. One, Yoshiko Seki, 63 years old, said she wanted the government to import fire-ant detective dogs from elsewhere in Asia but feared they would take too long to arrive. “I am a bit scared,” she said.
After about two dozen fire ants were found in Nagoya in June, sumo wrestlers at a tournament there last week added sandals when outside the ring, upending their tradition. “Better safe than sorry,” said one wrestler.
Yoshiaki Hashimoto, an ant expert at the University of Hyogo in western Japan who helped identify the first specimens, said fire ants were probably in Japan already before the confirmed discoveries.
“The mild panic here is partly due to sensationalism in the mass media, with some reports falsely depicting fire ants as murderous,” said Mr. Hashimoto.
Joshua Blu Buhs, author of “The Fire Ant Wars: Nature, Science, and Public Policy in Twentieth-Century America,” said worries about non-native animals often reflect more general concerns about human immigrants and changes in national character.
He drew a parallel in Japan’s experience with how U.S. fire ant infestations in the 1950s were caught up in fears about communism. Some newspapers at the time referred to fire ants as “the red peril” and “fifth columnists,” he said.
Japan is a largely homogeneous nation with tight restrictions on immigration. It has been slowly opening its doors to foreign workers as it faces labor shortages.
At an emergency ant-policy meeting last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told government ministers, “We will exert every effort to prevent the infiltration and settlement of fire ants.” He added, “It is necessary for everyone in the nation to recognize correctly the characteristics of fire ants and address the matter calmly.”
Fire ants are one of the most aggressive types of ant and have spread to several countries in Asia. The wave of fear in Japan began when a cluster of fire ants that came in on a shipping container from China were found in the western port of Kobe.
Later, a container that arrived in the port of Tokyo from southern China brought in over 100 fire ants as well as larvae and eggs. Queen ants have since also been identified, raising fears the insects will build nests and are here to stay.
Shares of pesticide makers have surged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and one manufacturer started selling ponchos made from industrial-strength material that allegedly protects the wearer from fire ants.
One problem: identifying what is a fire ant and what isn’t.
The self-taught expert who writes the “Fire Ant Police” Twitter feed in Japan said he has responded to hundreds of photos sent in of suspect ants.
“I just want to be helpful and relieve a bit of the people’s anxiety,” he said in an interview. “As of today, I have not yet been sent a picture of something I believe is actually a fire ant.”