Among all the problems of global environment, global warming is reported more and more on media like TV or newspapers lately. In the arctic, where the effect of global warming is most obvious, we can see on TV that the ocean area where its ice melts in summer is expanding every year.
One of the Japan’s major problems of global warming is an increase of the number of severe typhoons, but the other important concerned risk is a plague of imported tropical creatures. They are coming up north as Japan is becoming subtropical. Since last year, Taiwan has been suffered from the mass production of the ants called “fire ants” and their expanding damage motivated the government to establish the Fire Ant Control Center. Fire ants are a kind of ants, which is called “red fire ants” in Taiwan. They have a nature to bite not only plants, but also humans and livestock, and they are named after the flaming pain given from their bite.
The fire ants are first found in Taiwan in October 2003. Since then, they have spread from both the north Taipei Prefecture and the middle Chiayi Prefecture. As to May 2007, their settlement is concerned in five municipalities in Taipei Prefecture, two municipalities in Chiayi Prefecture and twelve municipalities in Taoyuan Prefecture, which is located in South West of Taipei. (From Yaeyama Mainichi Online)
Of course, Japan is aware that the invasion of fire ants will have a catastrophic effect on the country. The Japanese customs and waterfront defense mission is very cautious about their invasion, but without a doubt, it is only a matter of time. As previously mentioned, fire ants not only eat up trees, plants and agricultural products, but also bite humans and livestock because of their extraordinary greed. Fire ants should be recognized as awfully harmful ants, since they have as many as three harmful effects, agricultural, pastoral and human. They are very powerful as to terminate other local ants and to steal food from them. They usually eat reptiles and arthropods, but if the fire ants eat up all of them, the ecology in Taiwan will be collapsed and other unexpected environmental problems are also concerned now.
By the way, it is already verified that termites do not come close to 30 meters in diameter if we dig a 1.5 meters hole and bury 120 kg of charcoal. It is not verified yet if the power of charcoal and minus ions is effective against these fire ants in Taiwan, but we can assume these harmful termites and fire ants tend to have a mass production in the area where global warming and oxidation is in fast progress. Therefore, fire ants would be unable to hatch eggs and their mass production could be prevented if we realized a reductive environment.
